I.I  I  iK.\K\' 

Ol'  Till-, 

University  of  California. 


(tI  K'l"   (  )1- 


Received         (^t^  .  iS^^'- 

zAcccssioiis  No.^O^Sy    .        CLiss  No. 


( 


TOWN 


AND 


City  Government 


IN 


PROVIDENCE 


By  GEORGE  G.  WILSON. 


Providence  : 

TIBBITTS  &  PRESTON, 

1869. 


TOWN 


AND 


City  Government 


PROVIDENCE. 


By  GEORGE  G.  WILSON. 


^^  Of  thb"*^^ 
nFIVBRSITT] 


Providence  : 

TIBBITTS  &  PRESTON. 

i8I8q. 


^p' 


Copyriglit  1889, 
By  Geo,  G,  AVilson. 


TJiriVBRSITT] 

CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Page. 

A.    Eaely  Settlement  Causes. 

(a)  Early  New  England  Government 9 

(6)  Dissensions 9 

(c)  Williams  Banished 9 

THE   SETTLERS. 

(a)  Williams's  Purpose , 10 

(h)  Difficulties 10 

(c)  Peculiarities  of  their  Position 11 

CHAPTEK  I. 
BEGINNINGS   OF  SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

A.  Fundamental  Principles. 

(a)  In  Regard  to  Land 12 

ijb)  In  Regard  to  Civil  Power 12 

B.  Phases  of  Early  Self-Government. 

(1)  By  Mutual  Consent '. 13 

(2)  By  Majority  Without  Delegated  Authority 13 

(a)  Limitation  of  Power  of  Majority 15 

(&)  Town  Actions  and  Powers 15 

(c)  Results  of  This  Form 16 

(3)  By  Majority  With  Delegated  Authority 17 

(a)  General  Provisions 17 

(b)  "  Disposers  "    Authority •       17 

(c)  Hue  and  Cry 17 

{d)  Effectiveness  Wanting 18 

(e)  Dangers  Without. 18 

(/)  Tumult  Within 18 

{g)  Charter  Needed 19 

C.  The  Charter  of  1643-4. 

(1)  Pov/ers  Granted  by  it 19 

(2)  Its  EfiEect 20 

(3)  Non-Union  of  Towns 21 

D.  Political  Growth  to  1647 21. 


it  Contents. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

PERIOD   OF  TOWN   DEVELOPMENT,  1647-1700. 

A.  Political  Condition  of  Towns,  1647 22 

B.  Hindrances  to  Union  of  Towns 23 

C.  Steps  Toward  Union  by  Pkovedence 23 

D.  Adoption  of  "  Code  of  1047  " 23 

E.  Relation  of  Town  to  State 24 

F.  Town  Organization 25 

G.  The  Town  Meeting 25 

(1)  Who  May  Attend 25 

(3)  Where  Held 26 

(4)  When  Held 27 

(5)  Business  Transacted 27 

(6)  Character  of  the  Meeting 28 

H.    The  Officers  Elected,  1647-1663. 

(1)  The  Presiding  Officer 28 

(2)  The  Town  Clerk 29 

(3)  The  Town  Treasurer 29 

(4)  The  Town  Deputies 30 

(5)  Continuation  of  Previous  Town  Officers 30 

(6)  The  Constable 31 

(7)  The  Town  Sergeant 31 

(8)  The  Haywards 32 

^  (9)  The  Town  Council  of  1647 32 

(a)  How  Chosen 32 

•  (&)  Its  Judicial  Powers 34 

(c)  Other  Functions 34 

(d)  Interests  Represented 34 

I.    Town  Government  Under  Charter  of  1663, 

(1)  The  Town  Council 34 

(a)  How  Chosen 35 

(6)  Its  Jurisdiction 35 

(2)  Other  Officers,  by  Order  of  State,  in  Towns 35 

(3)  Other  Officers,— Minor—Local 36 

(4)  The  Surveyors  of  Land 37 

(5)  The  Waywardens 37 

J.    Land  Holding. 

(1)  Title  by  Purchase  from  Indians 38 

(2)  Early  Distribution 38 

(3)  Allotments 38 

(4)  Character  of  Holdings 38 

(a)  "  Home  Lots  " 33 

(6)  "  Six  Acre  Lots  " 39 

(c)  Larger  Division 39 

(d)  Special  Appointments, 39 


Contents.  tit 

(e)  The  Common. 39 

K.    Land  Regulations. 

(1)  General 40 

(2)  Commoning 40 

L.    Taxation 41 

M.    Eelations  to  Chuech 41 

N.    Survival  of  English  Institutions. 

(a)  Not  Seen  in  Name  of  Town 42 

(6)  Not  Seen  in  Spirit  of  Town 42 

(c;  In  Land  Division 43 

[d)  In  Town  Officers 44 

(e)  In  Nature  of  Meetings 44 

O.    Interruptions  of  Town  Functions. 

{a)  Coddington  Episode 45 

(&)  King  Philip's  War 46 

(c)  Andros's  Rule 47 

P.    Conclusion 47 

CHAPTER  IIL 
PERIOD   OF   MUNICIPAL   GROWTH,  1700-1832. 

A.  The  Town  at  Beginning  of  Eighteenth  Century 49 

B.  Commercial  Growth 49 

C.  The  Proprietors 50 

D.  The  Freemen 51 

E.  Divisions  of  the  Town 52 

F.  Attainment  of  Municipal  Self-Consciousness. 52 

G.  Exercise  of  Town  Functions 53 

(a)  In  Town  Meeting : 53 

(b)  Through  Town  Council 54 

(c)  Through  Town  Officers 55 

(1)  Judicial 55 

(2)  Financial 55 

(3)  Highway 56 

(4)  Poor 56 

(5)  Fire  Department 56 

(6)  Clerk  of  Market 57 

(7)  Police 57 

(8)  Miscellaneous 57 

REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD  1763-1790. 

A.  Condition  of  the  Town  in  1763 59 

B.  Manifestation  of  Town  Spirit 59 

C.  Town  Administration 60 

D.  Paper    Money 61 

E.  Town  vs.  Country 61 


iv  Contents. 

F.    The  Town  Fbdkealist 62 

PEACEFUL  DEVELOPMENT. 

A.  Pbooress  of  the  Town 62 

B.  Impeovbments 62 

C.  School  System  . .  ^ •. 63 

D.  Increase  of  Municipaij  Duties 63 

E.  Movement  foe  a  Charter 63 

F.  Phases  of  Government 64 

CHAPTER  IV. 
PROVIDENCE  UNDER  THE  CHARTER. 

A.  Voters 66 

B.  Transition  to  City  Government ,67 

C.  The  City  Government 68 

(a)    Mayor 68 

(5)    Aldermen 68 

(c)  Common  Council 69 

(d)  City  CouncU 70 

(e)  Judicial  Department 70 

(/)    Eecord  Department 71 

ig)    Police 72 

(/i)    Fire 73 

(i)     Health  and  Poor 73 

(j)    Finance 74 

(fc)    Public  Works .  74 

(0    Education 74 

(m)    Other  Officers 75 

(n)    General , 75 

D.  The  Survival  of  the  Town  Meeting 75 

E.  Conclusion 77 


[TJHI71RSITT] 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence. 


Early  Settlement. 

The  local  government  of  New  England  has  always  been 
vigorous.  In  some  sections,  for  many  years,  the  civil  power 
exercised  both  political  and  religious  authority.  The  colonies 
along  Massachusetts  Bay  partook  largely  of  the  nature  of 
religious  communities.  It  was  the  object  '*  first  to  settle 
religion  here,  before  profits  or  popularity."* 

Discussions  in  regard  to  the  nature  and  limit  of  civil  powers 
characterized  the  seventeenth  century.  Even  before  the  first 
of  the  New  England  colonists  disembarked  there  was  found 
among  them  *'8ome  appearance  of  faction  which  led  to  the 
agreement  to  submit  to  the  government  that  should  be  estab- 
lished."^ This  early  **appearance  of  faction"  soon  became  a 
reality.  Attempts  to  extend  religious  authority  led  to  opposi- 
tion, yet,  for  the  most  part,  the  religious  element  prevailed. 
In  Massachusetts  Bay  colony  the  government  was  little  less 
than  theocratic.  Here  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  func- 
tions of  the  civil  magistrate  in  matters  pertaining  to  religion 
became  frequent.  The  expression  of  these  ideas  was  deemed 
**dangerous"  by  the  government  and  could  not  be  tolerated. 

Among  those  who  dared  to  express  an  opinion  in  regard  to 
the  authority  of  magistrates  as  exercised  at  the  * '  Bay  "  was 


^  Young's  Chronicles,  p.  26. 
2  Mourt's  Eelation,  p.  2. 

Note. — Chapters  I.  and  II.  were  read  before  the  Ehode  Island  Historical 
Society,  April  23,  1889. 

The  writer  desires  to  acknowledge  his  indebtedness  to  those  who  have 
kindly  placed  at  his  disposal  documents  and  other  material  bearing  upon  the 
history  of  the  town  and  city,  especially  to  Henry  V.  A.  Joslin,  City  Clerk 
of  Providence. 


10         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence. 

Roger  Williams.  Hie  action  in  this  and  other  *'  matters  of 
conscience  "  led  to  his  departure  from  the  jurisdiction  of  Mass- 
achusetts Bay  colony.  In  accordance  with  a  suggestion  from 
Governor  Winthrop,  Williams  was  led  *'to  steer  "his  course 
to  Narragansett  Bay,  **frOm  the  freedness  of  the  place  from 
any  English  claims  or  patents."^  Arriving  at  Seekonk,  he 
*' began  to  build,"  but  on  information  that  he  was  in  the  edge 
of  the  ** bounds"  of  Plymouth,  he  crossed  the  river  and  made 
his  settlement  at  the  head  of  Narragansett  Bay.  This  place, 
in  acknowledgment  of  divine  leading,  he  called  Providence. 

In  speaking  of  his  settlement  here,  Williams  says  :  '*  My 
souls  desire  was  to  do  the  natives  good."  **It  is  not  true,  that 
I  was  employed  by  any,  was  supplied  by  any,  or  desired  any 
to  come  with  me  into  these  parts,"  nor  did  he  desire  **to  be 
troubled  with  English  company,  yet  out  of  Pity  "^  gave  leave  to 
several  persons  to  accompany  him.  He  did  not  desire  to  form 
a  Puritan  commonwealth.  The  settlement  at  Providence  was 
not  made  with  a  definite  purpose  like  that  in  the  valley  of  the 
Connecticut  river. 

The  neighboring  colonies  had  received  a  measure  of  assist- 
,ance  from  the  parent  community.  The  settlement  at  Providence 
was  not  made  under  any  such  favorable  circumstances.  The 
government  under  which  the  early  settlers  had  lived  before 
taking  up  their  abode  at  the  mouth  of  the  "MoTashausic  "  river 
was  near  enough  to  interfere  in  any  questions  where  its  inter- 
est might  be  involved.  The  band  who  formed  the  early  body 
of  citizens  brought  with  them  no  system  of  government  resolv- 
ing them  into  a  *'body  j)olitic."  Money  and  supplies  were 
wanting.  There  was  no  charter  from  a  parent  state  upon  which 
to  base  the  authority  for  their  acts.  To  institute  a  form  of 
government  under  such  adverse  conditions  would,  at  least,  be 
difficult,  but  a  still  greater  obstacle  was  to  be  overcome.  The 
widely  differing  opinions  of  these  settlers   must  be,  in  a  meas- 

1  Narragansett  Club  Pub.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  335. 

2  Hs-rris  MSS.,  also  R.  X.  Hist.  Tracts,  No.  14,  p.  53. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence,          11 

ure,  harmonized.  How  difficult  a  task  was  before  the  organ- 
izers of  the  local  government  subsequent  events  amply  showed. 
The  early  settlers  at  Providence  were  not  so  qualified  by  pre- 
vious experience  in  municipal  affairs  as  to  make  the  solution  of 
the  problem  of  self-government  easy.  Of  the  first  comers, 
William  Harris  alone  seems  to  have  had  a  knowledge  of  ques- 
tions involving  a  considerable  degree  of  education,  so  as  to 
make  him  a  rival  and  opponent  of  Williams  on  many  occa- 
sions. There  were  some  among  those  who  came  later  who 
had  held  positions  under  the  state  and  local  governments,  yet 
at  no  time  in  the  early  history  of  Providence  did  so  distin- 
guished men  grace  its  councils  as  were  among  the  early  legis- 
lators of  Massachusetts  Bay  and  Plymouth  Colonies.  The 
lands  about  '^Moshassuck"  and  at  "Pawtuxet"  Williams 
declares  "were  mine  own  as  truly  as  any  man's  coat  upon  his 
back."^  He  might,  then,  as  proprietor  have  ruled  this  region 
over  which  he  had  acquired  possession.  He  did  not  reserve 
to  himself  **a  foot  of  land,  or  an  inch  of  voice  in  any  mat- 
ter, more  than  to  servants  and  strangers."^ 

In  this  settlement  there  arose  a  peculiar  condition  of  affairs. 
The  proprietor  of  the  land  had  parted  with  that  and  the  power 
which  it  gave  him ;  the  settlers  were  without  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  neighboring  colonies  ;  at  so  great  a  distance  from  Eng- 
land the  allegiance  was  merely  nominal ;  a  theocratic  form  of 
government  did  not  suit  their  ideas.  Whatever  form  of  gov- 
ernment was  to  be  established  must  come  from  within. 

1  Narragansett  Club  Pub.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  263. 

2  Ibid. 


0?  THK         ^ 


CHAPTER  1. 


Beginnings  of  Self-Government. 

While  Roger  Williams  was  in  Massachusetts  he  had  main- 
tained **that  the  natives  are  the  true  owners  of  the  land,"  and 
that  a  grant  from  the  king  in  England  did  not  confer  a  title  to 
lands  in  America.  Acting  upon  this  doctrine  he  purchased 
from  the  Indian  sachems,  Canonicus  and  Miantonomi,  a  tract 
of  land  along  the  *'Mooshausick  and  Wanasquatucket "  rivers. 
He  admitted  others  **into  the  fellowship  of  his  purchase."  ^ 
Thus,  at  Providence,  from  its  first  settlement,  there  were  the 
two  fundamental  characteristics  of  a  State,  a  relation  of  men 
to  the  soil  of  a  fixed  territory  and  a  measure  of  union  between 
these  men. 

A  broad  general  principle  as  to  the  nature  of  civil  govern- 
ment had  already  been  asserted  by  Williams.  This  was  not 
in  harmony  with  the  views  commonly  held  in  Massachusetts, 
for  one  of  the  charges  upon  which  Williams  had  been  brought 
before  the  General  Court  was  that  he  had  divulged  the  danger- 
ous opinion  "that  the  magistrate  ought  not  to  punish  the 
breach  of  the  first  table,  otherwise  than  in  such  cases  as  did 
disturb  the  civil  peace."  After  the  land  was  acquired  and  dis- 
tributed this  new  settlement  was  to  solve  the  problem  pro- 
posed in  the  ** Model  of  Church  and  Civil  Power"  as  to  **what 
bounds  and  limits  the  Lord  hath  set  between  both  administra- 
tions." Williams  had  become  more  and  more  convinced  that 
the  spiritual  and  civil  authorities  should  be  wholly  separated. 
If,  as  has  been  said,  the  object  for  which  emigration  to  New 
England  was  encouraged  was  in  order  that  those  who  settled 
there  might  **lay  out  their  estates,  spend  their  time,  labors  and 
endeavors  for  the  benefit  of  them  that  shall  come  after  and  in 

1  K.  I.  Historical  Tracts  No.  14,  p.  66. 


"Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence.         13 

desire  to  further  the  Gospel  among  those  poor  heathens,"  ^ 
then  Roger  Williams  in  the  settlement  of  Providence  ap- 
proached nearest  to  the  ideal  New  England  colonist,  and  was 
far  from  being  a  stranger  **to  the  true  New  England  spirit 
and  the  true  New  England  theory."  ^ 

From  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  Providence  in  1636,  to 
the  adoption  of  *'the  code  of  1647,"  this  community  seems  to 
have  passed  through  three  phases  of  self-government:  (1) 
government  by  mutual  consent,  (2)  by  majority  of  house- 
holders without  delegated  authority,  (3)  by  majority  with 
delegated  authority. 

The  government  by  mutual  consent  was  such  as  would 
arise  among  men  few  in  number,  associated  together,  with 
common  interests.  It  naturally  would  not  be  of  long  duration. 
The  interests  of  men  breaking  ground  for  a  settlement  would 
be  sufficiently  harmonious  to  admit  of  such  a  form  of  govern- 
ment. This  seems  to  have  been  the  case  at  Providence,  for 
hardly  had  the  summer  of  1636  passed  when  Williams  writing 
to  Winthrop  says,  **Hitherto  [consultation]  and  mutual  con- 
sent have  finished  all  matters  with  speed  and  peace, "^  but 
now  other  influences  began  to  appear  in  differences  of  opin- 
ion and  * 'discontent."  The  mere  ''fellowship  of  purchase" 
and  "mutual  consent"  were  no  longer  sufficient  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  this  little  community,  and  the  inhabitants  felt 
called  upon  "to  be  compact  in  a  civil  way."  ^  This  govern- 
ment by  "mutual  consent"  yielded  to  one  admitting  of  a 
more  ready  expansion. 

This  was  found  in  the  agreement  brought  about,  as  Wil- 
liams says,  by  the  discontent  of  "some  young  men  (of  whom 
we  had  much  need)  being  admitted  to  freedom  of  inhabita- 
tion," who  soon  sought  "freedom  of  vote  also  and  equality, 
etc."^  A  fac-simile  of  the  original  compact,  the  foundation 
of  an  organized  government  in  Providence,  is  as  follows  : 

'^  Young's  Chronicles,  p.  257. 

2  Porter,  in  New  Englander,  1883,  p.  305. 

3  Narragansett  Club  Pub.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  4.     *  Ibid.     ^  Ibid. 


14         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 


Acknowledgements  are  due  for  the  use  of  the  above  cut,  which  appeared 
in  the  State  Census,  1885. 


Town  and  Gity  Government  in  Providence.         15 

Supplying  the  words  effaced  the  agreement  reads  ;  <*We, 
whose  names  are  hereunder,  desirous  to  inhabit  in  the  town  of 
Providence,  do  promise  to  subject  ourselves  in  active  and  pas- 
sive obedience  to  all  such  orders  or  agreements  as  shall  be 
made  for  public  good  of  the  body  in  an  orderly  way,  by  the 
major  consent  of  present  inhabitants,  masters  of  families — 
incorporated  together  in  a  Towne  fellowship,  and  others  whom 
they  shall  admit  unto  them  only  in  civil  things."  Thirteen 
names  are  subscribed.  The  little  settlement  now  became  a 
community  with  an  established  form  of  local  government. 
The  authority  was  limited  to  * 'civil  things,"  thus  marking  the 
most  important  departure  from  existing  ideas  as  to  the  powers 
of  the  civil  magistrate.  Whether  the  householders  had  before 
this  and  subsequent  to  Williams'  letter  to  Winthrop,  in  which 
he  mentions  the  necessity  (>f  some  form  of  government, 
adopted  some  civil  compact  or  not  the  meagre  records  do  not 
show.  The  expressions  "inhabitants  incorporated,"  "masters 
of  families — incorporated  together  in  Towne  fellowship  "  would 
seem  to  imply  some  form  of  organization,  and  there* can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  limitation  to  "civil  things"  was  binding  before 
as  well  as  after  the  agreement  to^whith  the  thirteen  subscribed. 

Under  this  agreement  there  was  secured  to  the  "  masters  of 
families  "  and  such  as  should  be  admitted  to  them  the  right  of 
governing  the  little  community.  Questions  in  regard  to  land 
occupy  the  leading  place  in  the  town-meeting  records.  To 
these  town  meetings  all  public  business  was  brought.  Here  it 
was  discussed  and  decided.  The  town  thus  assembled  sat  as 
judge  upon  such  cases  as  arose.  Here  Joshua  Verin  was 
tried,  convicted  and  deprived  of  the  "  libertie  of  voting,  for 
restraining  of  the  libertie  of  conscience,"  in  that  he  would  not 
allow  his  wife  to  attend  frequent  week-day  meetings  at  the 
house  of  Roger  Williams.  In  the  town  meetings  titles  to  land 
were  confirmed  and  further  divisions  made.  The  securing  by 
the  town  of  a  re-confirmation  of  the  deed  from   the  Indians  ^ 

1  R.  I.  Colonial  Records,  toI.  i.,  p.  18. 


16  Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

and  of  the  "Initial  Deed"  from  Williams  himself  to  his  *  Mov- 
ing friends  and  neighbours,"  shows  that  there  was  a  grow- 
ing idea  that  the  lands  and  rights  should  be  more  definitely 
guarded  from  encroachment.  The  townsmen  desired  a  clear 
and  unequivocal  title  to  the  section  upon  which  they  were 
building.  If  this  title  in  all  its  bearings  had  been  made 
still  more  explicit  many  contentions  would  have  been  pre- 
vented. Thus  in  1638  we  find  a  proprietary  association  at 
Providence.  In  the  possessors  of  the  soil,  the  right  to 
administer  public  affairs  seems  to  be  vested.  How  far  the 
thirteen  who  signed  the  agreement  to  submit  in  civil  things 
were  admitted  into  the  management  of  public  affairs  does  not 
appear,  but  it  is  sure  that  they  were  politically "  dependent. 
The  * 'privilege  of  inhabitation  "  did  not  carry  with  it  the  "right 
of  voting."  The  vote  resided  in  the  householders  and  such  as 
they  should  "admit  unto  them."  While  the  "major  part  of 
the  inhabitants  of  this  Town  of  Providence  "  were  the  govern- 
ing body,  yet  their  authority  over  others  extended  only  to 
"civil  things.'' 

This  limitation  naturally  drew  men  to  the  little  settlement 
over  whom  their  consciences  exercised  little  influence.  Unde- 
sirable settlers  came.  Disputes  were  frequent.  There  was  a 
lack  of  interest  in  any  form  of  government.  Non-attendance 
at  the  "Towne  meeting"  became  so  common  that  a  fine  was 
imposed  to  secure  more  prompt  and  more  general  response  to 
the  call.  That  all  questions  of  public  interest  and  many  in 
which  personal  rights  only  were  involved  should  be  decided 
by  the  vote  of  a  majority  of  the  "inhabitants  orderly  assem- 
bled," necessitated  too  frequent  meetings  and  the  burdens 
of  this  form  of  self-government  became  too  great  to  be  borne. 
Frequent  and  spirited  disagreements  among  the  settlers  led 
neighboring  colonists  to  call  Providence  the  home  of  misrule 
or  no  rule.  The  town  too  felt  the  need  of  a  form  of  govern- 
ment possessing  greater  energy.  A  committee  was  appointed 
to  devise  a  plan  for  settling  "the  many  differences"  amongst 
the  "  louving  friends  and  neighbours." 


Town  and   City  Government  in  Providence.  17 

An  attested  copy  of  their  report  ^  bears  the  date  of  July  27, 
1640,  and  to  it  thirty-nine  names  are  subscribed  as  * 'laying 
themselves  down  as  subjects  to  it."  By  this  new  form  of 
government,  '*five  disposers  "  were  to  "meete  every  month- 
day  uppon  General  things"  at  the  call  of  *'the  Gierke"  who 
was  to  hold  his  office  for  one  year.  The  *'five  disposers" 
were  to  hold  office  for  three  months.  "The  Clerk  "  was  to 
summon  "the  generall  towne  together  every  quarter,"  or  if 
any  man  considered  himself  to  have  such  "differences  with 
any  of  the  five  disposers  which  cannot  be  deferred  till 
general  meeting  of  the  towne,  then  he  may  have  the  Glerk 
call  the  towne  together  at  his  [discretion]  for  a  tryall."  It 
was  also  provided  that  "as  formerly  hath  bin  the  liberties  of 
the  town,  so  still,  to  hould  forth  liberty  of  Gonscience."  ^ 
This  clause  limits  the  magisterial  power  to  civil  things.  The 
provision  for  summoning  a  general  town  meeting  at  the  re- 
quest of  one  man  shows  how  little  authority  was  vested  in 
the  "disposers"  and  that  cases  involving  any  serious  "differ- 
ences "  would  still  be  referred  to  the  meeting  of  the  inhabitants. 

Subject  to  this  appeal  to  the  town  the  "five  disposers"  were 
authorized  to  fix  bounds,  "betrusted  with  disposeall  of  lands 
and  also  of  the  townes  Stockes,  and  all  Generall  things." 
They  were  not  to  admit  any  as  "townesmen"  until  a  six  days' 
notice  had  been  given  to  "the  Inhabitants."  Those, who  were 
admitted  were  to  subscribe  to  this  plan  of  government.  They 
also  had  power  to  give  "every  man  a  deed  of  his  lands,  lying 
within  the  bounds  of  the  Plantation,  to  hould  it  by  for  after 
ages."  They  might  call,  certain  "delinquents"  to  account  by 
arbitration  and  provided  for  a  complex  system  of  thus  settling 
questions. 

Every  man  that  had  not  "paid  in  his  purchase  money  for 
his  Plantation "  was  to  "make  up  his  10s.  to  be  30s.  equal 
with   the  first  purchasers."     In   case  a   "hue    and    cry "  was 

\  City  Clerk's  office. 

2  R.  I.  Colonial  Rec,  vol.  i.,  p.  28, 


18  Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence. 

raised,  all  were  to  join  in  pursuit  of  the  ** delinquent."  As  in 
England,  if  the  '* hubbub"  was  raised  without  "just  cause," 
the  penalty  fell  upon  the  one  who  raised  the  cry,  and  that 
imprudent  one  must  satisfy  the  men  *'for  their  time  lost  in  it."^ 

This  agreement  seems  to  have  been  the  form  of  government 
in  accordance  with  which  the  town  acted  for  several  years.  ^ 
Many  minor  questions  and  such  as  would  not  meet  with 
serious  opposition  might  be  settled  by  the  "disposers."  In 
these  cases  the  town  collectively  would  be  relieved  from 
a  mere  formal  action  upon  matters  in  which  they  were 
of  one  mind,  as  in  the  admission  of  desirable  settlers  and 
in  carrying  out  such  plans  as  were  known  to  be  generally 
approved.  Yet  should  any  one  object  to  the  action  he  might 
"at  the  Generall  towne  meeting  have  a  tryall,"  or  if  he 
deemed  the  matter  such  as  could  not  be  "deferred  till  the  gen- 
eral meeting  of  the  towne,"  he  might  have  "the  Clerk  call  the 
towne  together."  Thus  what  power  had  been  delegated  might 
revert  to  the  town  at  the  will  of  a  single  inhabitant.  Callen- 
der  speaks  of  this  government  of  the  settlers  at  Providence  as 
"according  to  a  model  drawn  up  by  some  of  themselves  as 
most  suitable  to  promote  peace  and  order  in  their  present  cir- 
cumstances ;  which,  however,  left  them  in  a  very  feeble  con- 
dition."^ 

The  feebleness  of  this  form  of  government  became  more  and 
more  evident.  Providence  was  threatened  with  dangers  from 
without  and  within.  The  neighboring  English  colonies  laid 
claim  to  territory  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  town.  They 
were  inciting  the  Indians  to  war.  The  Rhode  Island  colonies 
were  refused  admission  to  the  New  England  Union.  The 
Dutch  were  near  at  hand  ready  to  take  advantage  of  the 
unsettled  state  of  affairs. 

Within    the   little   town  discord    prevailed.     Appeals   from 


1  K.  I.  Colonial  Rec,  vol.  i.,  p.  30. 

2  Staples,  Annals,  44. 

3  Historical  Discourse,  97. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence.          19 

the  decisions  of  the  * 'disposers  "  and  '^arbitrators  "  were  made. 
The  authority  of  the  town  itself  was  denied  and  defied.  Blood- 
shed followed  attempts  to  enforce  law.  A  body  of  the  colonists 
seceded  and  placed  themselves  under  the  protection  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Thus  the  authority  of  an  unfriendly  colony  was 
brought  to  the  very  doors  of  the  town.  Williams  himself, 
wearied  by  the  strife,  feared  he  would  be  forced  to  remove  to 
*'  little  Patience  "  island.  ^  There  were  those  who  denied  the 
authority  of  Providence  to  make  laws  for  its  own  govern- 
ment. The  lack  of  chartered  powers  was  made  the  ground 
of  many  lawless  actions  against  the  town.  Lech  ford  in  speak- 
ing of  Providence,  says:  "This  is  within  no  Patent  as  they 
say ;  but  they  have  of  late  a  kind  of  government  also  of 
their  owne  erection."  ^  This  "government  of  their  owne 
erection  "  was  no  longer  deemed  sufficient.  Aquidneck  had 
already  taken  action  toward  procuring  a  charter.  Providence 
joined  with  that  Island  in  this  effort  and  Roger  Williams  was 
sent  to  England  to  secure  from  the  home  government  the  right 
to  hold  and  govern  the  region  which  they  had  obtained  from 
the  Indians. 

Charter  of  1643-4. 

Williams  returned  from  England  in  the  autumn  of  1644, 
bringing  with  him  a  charter  for  "The  Incorporation  of  Provi- 
dence Plantations  in  Narraganeett  Bay  in  New  England.'' 
Under  this  title  were  included  the  towns  of  Portsmouth  and 
Newport  as  well  as  Providence.  As  represented  to  the  Earl 
of  Warwick  and  Commissioners  it  was  the  desire  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  these  towns  "to  have  their  hopeful  Beginnings 
approved  and  confirmed,  by  granting  unto  them  a  Free  Charter 
of  Civil  Incorporation  and  Government ;  that  they  may  order 
and  govern  their  Plantation  in  such  a  Manner  as  to  maintain 
Justice  and  peace,  both  among  themselves,  and  towards  all  Men 

.  1  Narragansett  Club  Pub.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  141. 
2  Plaine  Dealing,  p.  96. 


20         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

with  whom  they  shall  have  to  do."*  In  accordance  with  this 
desire  they  were  granted  the  charter  <'to  encourage  the 
good  Beginnings  of  the  said  Planters — Together  with  full 
Power  and  Authority  to  rule  themselves  and  such  others 
as  shall  hereafter  inhabit  within  any  Part  of  said  Tract  of 
land,  by  such  a  form  of  Civil  Government  as  by  voluntary 
consent  of  all,  or  the  greater  Part  of  them,  they  shall  find 
most  suitable  to  their  Estate  and  Condition."  There  was  a 
later  clause  which  provided  *Hhat  the  said  Laws,  Constitu- 
tions and  Punishments,  for  the  Civil  Government  of  the 
said  Plantation,  be  conformed  to  the  Laws  of  England, 
80  far  as  the  Nature  and  Constitution  of  the  place  will 
admit."  This  last  proviso  was  thus  left  to  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  colonists  and  amounted  to  a  mere  recommenda- 
tion that  the  laws  made  follow  as  closely  as  possible  those 
of  England.  By  this  charter  the  broadest  civil  authority  was 
conferred  upon  the  struggling  communities.  As  Arnold  briefly 
says,  **At  their  own  request  their  powers  were  limited  to  civil 
matters.  Beyond  this  a  silence  more  significant  than  lan- 
guage proclaimed  the  triumph  of  soul-liberty." ^ 

Williams  in  a  letter  written  in  1669,  looking  back  Xo  the 
time  before  the  charter  was  secured  says,  *'our  Government 
and  Civil  order  which,  at  first,  both  here  and  at  Rhode  Island, 
we  kept  up  upon  Grace  and  Favor  (until  God  was  pleased  to 
help  me  to  procure  a  charter  from  the  Parliament,)  was  all 
mere  nothings  and  nullities  and  we  lived  in  no  order  but 
Rout."^  This  charter  of  1643  introduced  a  new  element 
into  the  acts  of  the  town  governments.  These  were  no 
longer  **mere  nothings  and  nullities."  They  were  based 
upon  and  recognized  the  authority  of  England.  Under  date 
of  '*19th  of  11  mo.,  1645,"  those  who  receive  a  quarter 
share   of  land  "promise   to  yield   active   or  passive  obedience 

^  R.  I.  Colonial  Records,  vol.  i.,  p.  144. 

2  History  of  R.  I.,  vol.  i.,  p.  201. 

3  To  John  Whipple,  Jr.,  Aug.  24,  1669. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence,         21 

to  the  authority  of  [King  and  Parliament]  [The  State  of 
England]  established  in  this  colony,  according  to  our  charter, 
and  to  all  such  wholesome  laws  and  orders,  that  are  or  shaU 
be  made  by  the  major  'consent  of  the  Town  of  Providence." 

Although  the  towns  in  the  territory  incorporated  under  this 
charter  did  not  unite  under  one  general  government  until  more 
than  two  years  and  a  half  had  passed  by,  yet  it  doubtless  gave 
to  the  town  governments,  from  the  first,  an  element  of  stability 
which  they  had  not  before  possessed.  It  confirmed  their  right 
to  the  territory  which  they  occupied,  and  thus  secured  a  place 
for  this  colony  among  its  neighbors  as  also  under  the  royal 
protection.  There  was  not  sufficient  harmony  among  the  dif- 
ferent towns  or  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  individual  towns 
to  bring  about  a  union  under  a  general  government  till  1647. 

Thus  at  Providence  previous  to  the  year  1647  the  settlers 
were  governed  by  mutual  consent,  by  the  will  of  the  majority 
of  the  householders,  by  this  same  majority  with  certain  dele- 
gated functions,  and  also  under  this  same  form  modified  by  the 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  their  power  to  govern  themselves 
in  civil  things  was  granted  by  the  authority  of  England. 
Each  of  these  steps  removed  the  settlers  farther  from  the  phase 
of  government  in  which  no  civil  restraint  influenced  their 
action.  This  political  growth  at  Providence  took  place  under 
what  would  naturally  be  considered  the  most  unfavorable  cir- 
cumstances. It  would  almost  seem  that  in  this  little  settle- 
ment the  words  of  Aristotle,  after  twenty  centuries,  are  again 
echoed,  and  that  '*man  is,  by  nature,  a  political  animal."  ^ 
Cotton  says,  **Bani8hment  in  this  country  is  not  counted  so 
much  a  confinement  as  an  enlargement,  where  a  man  doth  not 
so  much  loose  civill  comforts  as  change  them."  ^  However 
Williams  may  have  **counted"  his  banishment,  it  is  certain 
there  had  been  a  great  change  in  both  form  and  nature  of  his 
* 'civill  comforts"  since  Massachusetts  had  permitted  his 
* 'enlargement"  in  1636. 

1  Politics,  1,  2,  §9. 

2  Cotton's  Answer,  p.  8, 


CHAPTER  II. 


Town  Development. 

The  lack  of  a  spirit  of  harmony  among  the  towns  incorpor- 
ated under  the  name  of  Providence  Plantations  prevented  the 
adoption  of  a  general  government  till  1647.  These  towns  had 
been  largely  independent  of  each  other  both  in  origin  and  in 
efforts  at  self-government.  The  towns  upon  Rhode  Island 
had  a  form  of  government  from  the  beginning  of  the  settle- 
ment. Providence  had  been  forced  from  time  to  time,  and 
reluctantly,  to  take  some  steps  to  secure  civil  order.  War- 
wick maintained  that  it  had  no  power  to  establish  any  form  of 
government  without  the  sanction  of  the  ruling  power  in 
England. 

Within  the  chartered  territory  there  was  upon  Rhode  Island 
a  **Democracie  or  Popular  Government,"  as  it  was  called,  at 
Providence  such  a  form  of  government  as  events  had  com- 
pelled the  settlers  to  adopt,  and  at  Warwick  none  at  all.  Dis- 
putes and  contentions  were  common  among  these  towns,  yet 
dangers  from  without,  discords  within,  and  a  feeling  that  their 
interests  were,  in  a  measure,  the  same,  led  to  a  union  of  the 
different  towns  under  a  general  governmeirt,  in  1647. 

Providence  was  until  this  time,  so  far  as  other  New  Eng- 
land settlements  were  concerned,  a  wholly  independent  town. 
It  acknowledged  the  authority  of  the  English  crown  alone. 
Its  position  frequently  excited  the  hostility  of  neighboring  col- 
onies. By  the  charter  of  1643-4  the  independence  of  the 
town  was  rendered  more  secure.  Williams  says  "now  the 
country  about  us  was  more  friendly,  and  wrote  to  us  and 
treated  us  as  an  authorized  colony ;  only  the  differences  of 
our  consciences  obstructed."  In  1647  some  of  the  powers 
hitherto  residing  in  the  town  are  handed  over  to  the  general 
government  so  far  as  to  secure  a  degree  of  efficiency  in  its 
administration.     Whatever   concessions  were   made,  neverthe- 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence.         23 

less,  were  well  guarded.  The  inhabitants  of  Providence  in 
their  instructions  to  the  committee  who  were  to  take  part  in 
the  organization  of  the  general  government  say  they  desire 
**to  hold  a  correspondency  with  the  whole  colony  "  at  the  same 
time  reserving  "full  power  and  authority  to  transact  all  our 
home  affairs  "  and  '*to  have  full  authority  to  choose,  ordain, 
authorize,  and  confirm,  all  our  towne  officers."  These  officers 
were  to  be  responsible  to  the  town  and  there  was  to  be  no 
'* intermixture  of  generall  and  particular  officers."^  Although 
little  power  would  thus  be  given  up  by  the  town,  yet  it  gave 
evidence  that  there  was  a  willingness  to  establish  a  general 
government  by  which  an  authority,  differing  from  that  of  the 
town  and  from  the  acknowledgment  of  a  mere  allegiance  to 
England,  would  be  brought  into  town  affairs. 

The  Simple  Cobbler  of  Aggawam  gave  voice  to  the  almost 
universal  opinion  of  his  time  when  he  said,  **How  all  Reli- 
gions should  enjoy  their  liberty.  Justice  its  due  regularity, 
Civil  cohabitation,  moral  honesty,  in  one  and  the  same  Juris- 
diction, is  beyond  the  Artique  of  my  comprehension."  ^  In 
the  territory  incorporated  under  the  name  of  Providence  Plan- 
tations that  form  of  government  which  seemed  so  far  removed 
from  possibility  was  to  be  tested.  To  establish  a  government 
upon  the  principles  of  broadest  liberty,  delegates  and  inhabi- 
tants from  the  settlements  about  Narragansett  Bay  assembled 
at  Portsmouth  May  19,  1647.  Some  of  the  towns  were 
anxious  to  withhold  as  much  power  as  possible  from  this 
assembly,  while  Warwick  must  look  to  this  body  for  authority 
sufficient  to  administer  its  local  affairs.  By  the  acts  of  this 
assembly  the  towns  of  Providence,  Portsmouth,  Newport  and 
Warwick  became  a  sort  of  confederation,  bound  together  in  a 
very  loose  way,  as  their  subsequent  falling  apart  showed.  In 
this  convention,  nominally  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns, 
the  *'Code  of  1647,"  establishing  a  legislative,  executive  and 


1  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  vol.  i,  p.  43. 

2  Sirable  Cobbler  of  Aggawam,  p.  17. 


24         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence. 

judicial  system  for  the  colony,  was  adopted.  By  this  assembly 
it  was  agreed  *'that  the  form  of  government  established  in 
Providence  Plantations  is  Democraticall  ;  that  is  to  say, 
a  Government  held  by  the  free  and  voluntarie  consent  of  all, 
or  the  greater  part  of  the  free  inhabitants."  *  The  code 
secured  religious  freedom  by  enacting  that  "all  men  may  walk 
as  their  consciences  persuade  them,  every  one  in  the  name  of 
his  God."'^  The  laws  were,  for  the  most  part,  based  upon 
English  statute  law,  yet  there  seems  to  have  been  no  hesitancy 
in  departing  from  English  precedent  when  the  "nature  and 
constitution  of  the  place"  demanded  it.  With  the  adoption 
of  this  code  the  towns  might  be  said  to  be  established. 

*'Providence  Plantations  "  was  now  the  legal  name  for  the 
colony.  It  included  not  only  the  settlement  begun  by  Roger 
Williams,  but  the  islands  in  the  Narragansett  Bay  and  parts 
of  the  adjoining  mainland.  Providence  was  now  merely  one 
of  the  towns  of  the  colony,  though  the  authority  of  the  general 
government  over  the  town  was  very  limited.  The  union  ren- 
dered the  local  government  more  stable,  and  secured  for  it 
greater  respect  both  within  and  without  the  town.  Providence 
was  entitled  to  nominate  officers  for  the  General  Assembly 
and  to  representation  in  that  body.  The  town  was  empow- 
ered to  refer,  to  a  General  Court  consisting  of  the  President 
of  the  colony  and  assistants  from  the  towns,  such  matters  as 
were  too  weighty  for  the  consideration  of  the  town  courts. 
To  the  General  Court  was  also  entrusted  cases  between  town 
and  town,  between  inhabitants  of  different  towns  and  between 
citizens  and  strangers.  The  President  of  the  colony  was  to 
have  the  general  oversight  of  the  "order  and  course  of  Law  " 
in  the  colony.  The  assistants  representing  the  towns  in  the 
General  Assemply  were  ex  officio  conservators  of  the  peace 
in  their  respective  towns.  ^     To  the  towns,  all  laws  passed  by 


1  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  vol.  1,  p.  156. 

2  Ibid  p.  190. 

3  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  vol.  1,  p.  192. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence.          25 

the  General  Assembly  must  be  submitted,  and  these  laws  must 
be  ratified  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns  before  becoming 
legally  binding.  A  town  might  propose  a  law,  which  it 
desired,  to  the  General  Assembly.  If  there  approved,  it  was 
submitted  to  the  other  towns  before  going  into  effect.  The 
Assembly  and  General  Court  met  in  different  towns,  and  in 
this  way  the  inhabitants  were  brought  into  a  closer  relation 
to  the  general  government. 

Town  Organization. 

The  town  of  Providence  retained,  after  the  adoption  of  the 
**Code  of  1647,"  nearly  all  the  powers  of  self-government 
which  it  had  had  before.  The  people  of  the  colony  were  the 
final  law-makers  of  the  colony.  The  inhabitants  of  the  town 
still  administered  the  internal  affairs  of  the  town.  The  judi- 
cial power  was  exercised  by  the  town  in  all  cases  where  merely 
local  interests  were  involved.  In  some  cases  there  might  be 
an  appeal  to  the  General  Court.  The  execution  of  town 
orders  was  entrusted  to  the  town  officers  as  were  also  some  of 
the  orders  of  the  General  Assembly.  There  was  a  charter  of 
incorporation  granted  to  the  town  of  Providence  by  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  in  1649.  In  effect,  it  was  merely  a  confirma- 
tion of  powers  already  exercised  by  the  town  and  there  seems 
to  have  been  no  action  taken  upon  it  by  the  inhabitants  on  that 
account. 

The  consideration  of  all  matters  of  local  government  first 
came  before  the  town  meeting.  In  this  assembly,  at  Provi- 
dence, those  who  had  been  admitted  to  the  privilege  of  a  vote 
decided  what  action  should  be  taken.  Mere  residence  in  the 
town  did  not  constitute  a  man  an  inhabitant,  nor  did  the  priv- 
ilege to  inhabit  the  town  always  carry  with  it  the  right  to  vote. 
Before  a  man  could  become  an  inhabitant  in  the  town  of  Prov- 
idence it  was  generally  necessary  that  he  should  petition  for 
that  right  and  that  the  petition  should  be  granted.  This  bound 
the  petitioner  to  active  and  passive  obedience  to  the  laws 
ordained  by  the  majority  of  the  freemen,  and  usually  such  as 


26         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

were  admitted  were  allowed  to  vote.  In  all  cases  they  were 
eligible  to  some  of  the  minor  town  offices  and  to  service  upon 
the  jury,  and  sometimes  had  certain  rights  to  undivided  lands. 
Regulations  in  regard  to  who  should  vote  varied  at  different  times. 
The  freemen  generally  formed  a  close  corporation  for  the  man- 
agement of  local  affairs,  though  it  would  appear  that  the  line 
between  those  who  were  not  freemen  and  those  who  were  was 
not  always  closely  observed.  Those  not  freemen  occasionally 
voted  when  they  were  not  hindered  ;  therefore  the  General  Assem- 
bly passed  a  law  that  if  anyone  not  a  freeman  should  vote  he 
should  be  fined  £5.^  The  moral  character  of  those  desiring 
to  be  admitted  ^o  dwell  within  the  town  was  scrutinized,  but 
religious  belief  was  not  considered.^  The  "privilege  of  inhab- 
itation "  was  not  a  prerejjuisite  for  service  as  a  town  officer. 
In  1656  anyone,  even  if  not  an  inhabitant,  is  ordered  to  fulfill 
the  duties  of  such  position  as  he  may  be  elected  to  by  the 
town.  An  act  of  May  15,  1658,  makes  the  very  general 
declaration  "that  all  those  that  enjoy  lands  in  the  jurisdiction 
of  this  Town  are  Freemen."^  A  gradual  extension  of  the 
franchise  in  Providence  took  place  during  the  first  half  century 
of  its  existence  as  a  chartered  town,  though  who  should  vote 
and  who  should  not  was  not  always  clear  apparently  to  the 
minds  of  the  voters  themselves.  The  statement  that  "the 
laws  are  passed  by  the  votes  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Town  of 
Providence"  seems,  in  general,  to  be  true. 

The  town  meetings  at  Providence  were  held  for  many  years 
in  such  places  as  would  have  astounded  the  inhabitants  of 
some  of  the  neighboring  colonies.  The  records  sometimes 
show  that  the  meetings  were  held  "under  a  tree  by  the  water 
side  before  Thomas  Field's  house."  In  unpleasant  weather  a 
private  house  afforded  the  town  a  meeting  place.  The  town 
clerk   was   at  first  appointed  at  each  meeting ;  afterwards   he 


1  R.  I.  Col.  Rec.  vol.  2,  pp.  58,190. 

2  Municipal  Court  Rec.  June  17,  1682. 

3  Town  Rec.  Book  No.  1. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence.  27 

held  office  for  a  longer  period.  When  John  Whipple 
became  town  clerk  his  house  became  a  favorite  place  for  hold- 
ing town  meetings.  There  seem  to  have  been  two  reasons  for 
this  choice.  The  town  clerk's  house  was  centrally  located 
and  a  customary  place  of  resort  and  Whipple  who  as  the 
records  say,  **keeps  a  house  of  publick  Entertainment,"  ^  no 
doubt  found  "town  meeting  days"  among  the  most  profitable 
of  the  year.  Whether  in  open  air  or  under  cover  convenience 
alone  seems  to  have  determined  the  place  of  these  meetings. 
Whenever  the  town  of  Providence  assembled  in  a  church  it 
was  because  it  was  the  most  available  place  and  not  because 
there  was  any  idea  of  a  union  between  the  religious  and  secular 
powers. 

A  man  who  deemed  he  had  business  of  sufficient  importance 
to  warrant  the  calling  of  a  town  meeting  might  have  such  a 
meeting  called.  Sometimes  he  was  to  pay  *'the  cost  of  the 
meeting  "  if  the  business  was  such  as  concerned  him  alone.  The 
regular  meetings  were  summoned  by  a  town  officer  and  those 
not  present  at  the  time  of  the  meeting  were  subject  to  a  fine. 

The  business  transacted  at  these  meetings  was  various  in  its 
nature  and  involved  all  the  subjects  in  which  the  inhabitants 
might  be  interested.  The  first  business  seems  to  have  been 
the  election  of  town  and  general  officers.  A  moderator, 
clerk,  two  town  deputies,  town  sergeant,  treasurer,  town  coun- 
cil of  six,  and  assistants  and  commissioners  for  the  General 
Assembly  and  General  Court  were  the  officers  elected  at  the 
earlier  town  meetings  after  the  adoption  of  the  code.  Jurymen, 
grand  and  petty,  surveyors,  hay  wards,  waywardens  and  other 
minor  officers  are  elected  at  later  meetings.  Some  of  these 
offices  are  subject  to  frequent  change  both  in  name  and 
holders.  The  relations  of  the  town  to  other  colonies  and 
towns,  the  discussion  of  measures  proposed  by  the  general 
government,  local  improvements  and  administration,  division 
of  lands,    settling   of  certain    questions    arising  between    the 

1  Municipal  Court  Kec,  1032. 


28  Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence* 

inhabitants,  and  other  items  occupy  the  minds  of  the  townsmen 
assembled. 

Ten  were  at  first  necessary  to  make  a  quorum.  Seven  was 
in  1657  made  a  sufficient  number  to  transact  business  legally.^ 
Williams  saj^s  there  are  **many  purchasers  who  ordinarily  do 
not  and  others  that  will  not  come  to  our  Towne  Meeting." 
This  state  of  peace  pervaded  the  meetings  for  a  time,  but  the 
very  nature  of  the  inhabitants  themselves  and  the  questions 
considered  would  prevent  its  long  continuance.  When  ques- 
tions involving  personal  interests,  especially  land  questions, 
were  considered,  the  meetings  seem  to  have  been  "rich  in 
debate."  Many  were  *'far  from  being  swift  to  hear  and  slow 
to  speak."  Williams  says,'  *'Our  peace  was  like  the  peace  of 
a  man  which  hath  a  tertian  Ague.  Every  other  day,  yea,  some- 
times every  meeting  we  were  all  on  fire  and  had  a  terrible 
burning  fit  ready  to  come  to  blows  about  our  lines."  ^  In 
1667  two  town  meetings  were  held  and  two  sets  of  officers 
elected,  each  claiming  to  be  lawfully  chosen.  Gradually  this 
*'headiness,"  as  Sir  Henry  Vane  calls  it,  subsides.  The  com- 
mon interest  and  general  welfare  are  more  and  more  respected , 
though  discord  and  tumult  at  town  meetings  continue,  some- 
times so  great  *'that  the  moderator  was  put  upon  to  dissolve 
the  meeting."  ^  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  vigor  generally 
characterized  the  local  assemblies  at  Providence. 

The  officers  elected  at  the  town  meetings  performed  the 
usual  duties  appertaining  to  their  respective  positions,  and 
sometimes  exercised  special  functions  delegated  to  them  by  the 
town. 

^The  moderator  was  usually  chosen  first.  It  was  his  duty  to 
preside  at  the  meeting  and  to  use  his  judgment  in  accepting 
the  engagement  of  such  town  officers  as  were  elected.     Some- 


1  Town  Rec,  October,  1657. 

2Letter  of  Williams.     R.  I.  Hist.  Tracts,  No.  14,  p.  37. 


3  Town  Meeting  Rec.  1693. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence  29 

times  ^'engagements"  ^  were  not  considered  satisfactory,  and 
refused  because  of  the  character,  age,  or  political  condition  of 
the  one  elected.  The  assistant  of  the  town,  beside  his  duties 
in  the  General  Assembly,  might  call  town  meetings  and  perform 
such  duties  as  belong  to  the  moderator.  He  was  also  coroner 
for  the  town  which  he  represented,  yet  if  he  happened  to  be 
the  nearest  assistant,  he  might  be  called  upon  to  perform  the 
duties  of  coroner  in  another  town.  The  assistant  was  also 
ex  officio  a  member  of  the  Town  Council.^  The  presiding 
officer  at  Providence  also  appears  under  the  name  of  chief 
officer,  head  officer,  general  assistant,  and  warden. 

The  town  clerk  was  to  keep  a  record  of  the  meetings,  to 
record  deeds  and  land  evidences  and  **  other  publick  matters 
transacted  in  the  town."^  He  was  also  to  keep  a  record  of 
marriages,  births,  and  deaths.*  It  seems  to  have  been  the  duty 
of  the  clerk  to  warn  and  provide  a  place  for  the  town  meet- 
ings when  that  was  necessary.  One  clerk  served  in  the  town, 
the  council,  and  proprietors'  meetings  for  many  years.  The 
proprietors  used  the  same  record  book  as  the  town  till  1718. 
The  records  of  the  actions  of  the  town  council  are  separated 
from  the  general  records  soon  after  King  Philip's  War,  during 
which  many  of  the  town  records  were  lost. 

The  office  of  town  treasurer  seems  sometimes  to  have  been 
merely  honorary.  In  one  report  the  treasurer  says  '*he  has 
received  nothing  as  Town  Treasurer  and  therefore  he  can  give 
no  other  account."^  In  January,  1679,  an  audit  committee 
was  appointed.  This  committee  consisted  of  five,  and  a 
majority  of  their  votes  was  necessary  in  favor  of  any  expendi- 
ture by  the  town  before  it  could  be  made.     Apparently  this 

^  "  Engagement,  "  corresponding  to  oath  of  oflSce  in  other  colonies,  given 
because  some  of  the  inhabitants  could  not  submit  to  the  "forms  and  cere- 
monies of  the  Church  of  England,  or  take  or  subscribe  the  oaths  and  arti- 
cles made  in  that  behalf."     Charter,  1663. 

2  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  vol.  ii.,  p.  28. 

3  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Col.  xix.  189. 

•  4  R.  I.  Col.  Rec.  vol.  3,  p.  362.  ^^  "      ^^^^ 

Town  Meeting  Rec.  vol.  1.  ^  *^  '^^^ 


5  > 


30         Town  and  City  G-overnment  in  Providence, 

committee  performed  its  duties  faithfully,  for  three  months 
later  the  town  finding  *'the  power  committed  to  the  said  Auditt, 
doth  too  much  abridge  the  Towne  of  their  power,"  declared 
that  a  vote  of  the  town  legally  met  should  be  necessary  for  the 
disposal  of  **the  Towne's  moneys  or  Towne's  Stock."*  The 
town  treasurer  usually  performed  such  duties  as  the  office 
demanded,  though  just  how  he  disposed  of  the  taxes  when 
received  in  beef,  pork  and  pease  is  not  fully  explained. 

The  town  deputies,^  two  in  number,  sometimes  called 
town  magistrates,  with  the  assistant  seem  to  have  been  the 
chief  officers.  It  is  stated  that  '*Two  deputies  w^ere  appointed 
from  time  to  time  whose  duties  were  to  call  town  meetings,  to 
preside  in  them,  to  settle  disputes  and  to  see  their  orders  exe- 
cuted."^ They  certainly  seem  to  have  been  a  kind  of  court 
for  settling  some  causes  and  for  granting  some  privileges  and 
rights.  Questions  in  regard  to  land  came  before  them  when 
not  of  sufficient  importance  for  the  town  council.  Town  dep- 
uties do  not  continue  under  the  charter  of  1663. 

Officers  having  duties  somewhat  similar  to  those  of  the 
moderator,  clerk,  treasurer  and  deputies  seem  to  have  been 
appointed  very  soon  after  the  town  was  settled.  In  the  earli- 
est records  we  find  mention  **of  him  that  gave  warning"  for 
the  town  meeting,  who  Williams  says  is  ** named  the  officer."* 
The  second  entry  in  the  town  records  reads  *Hhat  a  Treasurer 
should  be  appointed  for  receiving,  and  as  the  Towne  shall 
appoint,  for  expending  the  Towne's  stock."  On  **the  3  die 
of  the  10th  month  "  [1636]  it  is  ordered  that  if  any  be  absent 
from  the  town  meeting  "he  who  keeps  the  books  for  that 
month  is  to  observe,  and  take  notice  who  is  wanting,  and  pre- 
sent his  name  to  the  Towne. "^  In  the  following  year  two 
men  **were  deputed  "to  exercise  such  authority  as  the   town 

1  Town  Meeting  Rec.  vol.  3,  Jan.  27,  1679. 

2  Town  Deputies  seem  to  be  officers  peculiar  to  E.  I. 

3  Mass.  Hist.  Col.  ix.  183. 

*  Narragansett  Club  Pub.  vol.  vi.  p.  5. 

s  Town  Rec.  Book  I,  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  vol.  1,  p.  15. 


Town  and   City  Government  in  Providence.         31 

could  not  easily  exercise  as  a  body, — the  laying  out  of  lands 
which  had  been  granted  and  some  minor  duties.  The  func- 
tions of  these  officers  were  enlarged  and  continued  under  the 
government  of  1647.  Besides  these  offices  other  minor  duties 
had  been  performed  by  men  chosen  by  the  town  before  the 
union  of  the  settlements  in  1647.  The  adoption  of  the  **Code 
of  1647  "  served  to  formulate  and  render  stable  the  forms  of 
government  already  existing,  while  it  rendered  necessary  still 
greater  delegation  of  power. 

The  offices  of  moderator,  clerk,  treasurer  and  town  deputies 
might  be  said  to  be  a  continuation  of  those  which  were  in 
1647,  in  a  measure,  established  though  under  different  titles. 
Further  delegation  of  power  had  not  so  clear  a  precedent  to 
recommend  it  as  had  been  found  for  the  above. 

There  had  been  a  certain  kind  of  police  organization  in  the 
town  before  1647.  There  was  a  regulation  for  raising  a  "hub- 
bub." The  ''arbitrators"  and  ''disposers"  appointed  under 
the  agreement  of  1640  were  to  exercise  their  authority  to 
secure  the  public  peace.  The  election  of  a  constable  is  a  long 
step  in  the  direction  of  delegated  power,  yet  the  town  seems  to 
have  taken  this  step  soon  after  it  became  a  chartered  com- 
munity. The  constable  seems  to  have  been  the  especial  police 
authority  of  the  town.  He  had  a  general  oversight  of  the 
order  in  the  town.  When  an  objectionable  person  is  known  to 
be  within  the  limits  of  the  town  the  constable  usually  brings 
such  person  before  the  court  and  if  he  is  sentenced  to  be  removed, 
the  constable  escorts  the  objectionable  one  to  the  borders  of 
the  next  township  where  he  entrusts  him  to  the  constable  of 
that  town.  The  authority  of  the  constable  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  respected  as  the  town  desired  at  first,  for  in  1649  it 
was  ordered  "that  the  constable  shall  have  a  staflf  made  him 
whereby  he  shall  be  known  to  have  the  authority  of  the  Town's 
Constable."  ^ 

While  the  constable  was  more  especially  the  criminal  officer 

1  Town  Records,  27  of  2  mo.,  1649. 


32         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

of  the  town,  the  civil  processes  were  not  left  unserved.  These 
were  entrusted  to  the  town  sergeant.  Apparently  this  office 
was  not  established  until  after  that  of  the  constable,  and  it  was 
a  somewhat  higher  office,  though  their  duties  were  not  dis- 
tinctly defined.  The  town  sergeant  was  generally  the  execu- 
tive officer  of  the  meetings  of  the  town,  and  at  these  his  pres- 
ence is  required.  A  town  order  says,  ''he  should  be  at  every 
Towne  Meeting,  give  his  attendance  upon  the  Towne  Court."  ^ 
He  sometimes  received  some  pay  for  his  services.  Occasion- 
ally he  "warns  the  town  meetings,"  and  not  infrequently  his 
duties  and  those  of  the  constable  seem  to  be  identical,  but 
gradually  they  become  more  and  more  distinctly  marked. 

Among  the  other  early  officers  appointed  at  Providence 
were  the  hay  wards,  generally  two  in  number.  They  were 
to  view  the  fences  ^  and  to  settle  disputes  arising  from 
neglect  to  keep  up  sufficient  fences.  Besides  these  duties 
strictly  belonging  to  the  hay  wards  or  hedgewards,  they  seem 
sometimes  to  have  had  the  care  of  the  woods  upon  the  common 
and  undivided  lands,  and  occasionally  the  pound  was.  also 
under  their  care.^  There  was  a  pound  established  at  Provi- 
dence as  early  as  1652,  Doubtless  the  cattle  had  found  some 
of  the  fences  defective  before  this  time.  The  hay  wards  with 
nearly  the  same  duties  continue  for  many  years. 

Under  the  Charter  of  1643-4  and  in  accordance  with  an 
order  of  1647  each  town  of  ''Providence  Plantations"  was  to 
elect  a  Town  Council  to  consist  of  six  men,  also  to  appoint 
surveyors  of  the  highways  and  military  officers  and  "to  pro- 
vide carefully  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  to  maintain  the  impo- 
tent and  to  employ  the  able."  Of  this  Town  Council  Callen- 
der  says  :  "Each  town  chose  a  Council  of  six  to  manage  town 
affairs,  having  trial  of  small  cases  but  with  appeal  to 
court   of   the     President    and   Assistants."  *     Lechford    says 


1  Town  Records,  Book  No.  ii.  Oct.  8,  1659. 

2  Town  Eecords,  June  2,  1656 ;  Oct.  27,  1656. 

3  Town  Records,  1652;  Town  Meeting  Rec,  No.  3,  July  27,  1687, 
*■  Historical  Discourse. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence.         33 

of  New  England  in  general,  * 'every  towne  almost  hath 
a  petie  court  for  small  debts  and  trespasses  under  twenty 
shillings."  *  The  Town  Court  at  Providence  seems  to  have 
followed  the  New  England  model  thus  ffir,  for  in  June, 
1656,  it  is  ordered  that  the  Town  Court  "try  cases  under 
40s."  ^  Lechford  also  says  that  "Probates  of  Testaments  and 
granting  of  Letters  of  Administration  are  made  and  granted 
in  the  generall  or  great  quarter  Courts."  ^  The  power  of  pro- 
bate resided  for  a  time  in  the  head  officer,  who,  together  with 
the  two  town  deputies  and  three  men  chosen  by  the  town, 
made  up  the  Council,  Unlike  those  towns  where  the  powers 
of  probate  resided  in  the  "general  or  great  quarter  Courts," 
at  Providence  the  Town  Council  itself  was  a  kind  of  court  of 
probate  in  which  the  assistant  was  judge.  Chief  Justice  Dur- 
fee  says,  "The  town  councils  of  the  several  towns  were  from 
the  first  courts  of  probate."  *  The  "Code  of  1647"  infers  that 
it  is  the  duty  of  a  property-holder  to  dispose  by  will  of  his 
possessions,  and  if  he  fails  to  do  this,  the  Town  Council  is  to 
draw  up  a  form  of  will  in  accordance  with  which  it  is  to  be 
divided.  This  function  of  the  Town  Council  of  Providence 
seems  to  have  been  exceptional.  An  entry  in  the  town 
records  shows  that  still  other  judicial  powers  were  entrusted 
to  the  Council.  It  declares,'  "First,  all  actions,  all  cases 
shall  be  tried  by  six  Townsmen  as  in  the  Nature  .of  a  Jury, 
yet  with  the  Liberty  of  not  being  put  on  swearing."  ^  Occa- 
sionally appeals  are  taken  from  the  Council's  decision,  and  the 
question  is  brought  before  the  town  meeting.  The  decisions 
were  sometimes  submitted  to  the  town  for  confirmation.^ 
Ignorance  of  the   law,  in   some  instances,  seems  to  have  been 


^  Plaine  Dealing,  p.  25. 

2  Town  Records,  June  2,  1656. 

3  Plaine  Dealing,  p,  39. 

*  Gleanings  from  Judicial  History  of  R.  I.,  p.  32. 
.5  Town  Rec,  Oct.  8,  1655. 
'«  Town  Rec,  Oct.  1,  1657. 


34         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence. 

a  sufficient  ground  for  acquittal  in  cases  brought  before  this 
court.  ^ 

Besides  its  judicial  powers  the  Town  Council  seems,  previous 
to  1663,  to  have  had  a  general  oversight  in  the  care  of  the 
poor,  to  have  regulated  such  military  arrangements  as  the 
town  undertook^  and  to  have  granted  licenses.  Through 
the  town  deputies  the  Council  was  brought  into  a  kind  of  advi- 
sory board  for  the  laying  out  of  lands  and  highways,  and  some- 
times they  considered  the  advisability  of  admitting  to  inhabita- 
tion such  as  had  taken  up  their  residence  within  the  town 
limits.  Through  the  assistant  who  represented  the  town  in  the 
General  Assembly  and  was  ex  officio  a  member  of  the  Town 
Council,  this  body  was  brought  into  closer  relation  to  the 
general  government  and  obtained  a  better  knowledge  of  state 
aflFairs.  Many  matters  requiring  official  action  and  not  of  suf- 
ficient importance  to  warrant  the  calling  of  a  town  meeting 
were  left  to  the  Council. 

The  Town  Council  of  Providence  previous  to  the  Charter  of 
1663,  seems  in  a  large  measure  to  give  the  town  interests  a 
representation  proportional  to  their  importance.  Although  all 
the  members  of  the  Council  were  in  the  last  analysis  chosen  by 
the  inhabitants  of  the  town,  yet  as  members  of  the  Council 
the  assistant  especially  represented  the  interests  of  the  state, 
the  two  deputies  the  interests  of  the  proprietors,  and  the  remain- 
ing three  members  the  general  town  interests.  The  relative 
importance  of  state,  landholders  and  people  of  the  town  would 
be,  as  shown  in  the  Town  Council,  as  one,  two  and  three.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  conceive  how  the  settlers  could  have 
obtained  a  better  system  than  this  which  they  naturally  evolved. 

Town  Government  Under  the  Charter  of  1663. 

After  the  adoption  of  the  Charter  of  1663  the  Town  Council 
undergoes  a  change  both  in  the  interests  represented  and  in  its 


1  TownEec,  July  4,  1655. 

2  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  vol.  i.,  153. 


Town  and  Oity  Government  in  Providence,         35 

functions.  By  the  General  Assembly  it  is  ordered  "That  each 
towne  is  impowered  to  appoynt  a  day  for  election  of  ther 
towne  officers  and  to  elect  as  to  chouse  Towne  Counsell  men, 
so  many  as  to  make  up  sixe  with  the  Assistants."  The  number 
of  assistants  which  Providence  was  to  send  to  the  General 
Assembly  was  changed  from  one  to  three.  Therefore  the 
Town  Council  of  Providence  was  to  be  made  up  of  three  state 
officers  and  three  men  chosen  by  the  town  to  fill  up  the  num- 
ber to  six.  The  two  town  deputies,  who  had  been  ex  officio 
members  of  the  Council,  are  no  longer  members  of  this  body 
and  cease  to  be  elected.  Until  1681  six  was  the  usual  num- 
ber of  councilmen.  It  was  then  increased  to  nine,  thus  giving 
the  town  interests  twice  as  great  a  representation  as  those  of 
the  state.  About  this  time  the  Council  seems  to  have  fixed 
upon  a  '*sett  time"  for  its  meetings  which  were  to  be  *'upon 
Every  first  wensday  in  Each  month  for  this  ensueing  yeare."  ^ 

While  the  Town  Council  retained  the  jurisdiction  which  it 
had  before  1663,  it  gradually  assumed  new  functions.  Some 
of  the  power  that  had  previously  been  exercised  by  the  town 
deputies  passed  over  to  the  Town  Council.  It  now  became 
the  one  probate  authority,  where  questions  were  not  referred 
to  the  town  meetings.  With  an  increase  of  population  came 
an  increase  of  public  business  which  was  more  and  more  left 
to  the  Council.  It  now  looks  to  the  character  of  auch  as  take 
up  their  residence  in  the  town,  and  if  necessary  orders  the 
constable  or  sheriff  to  present  such  persons.^  The  Council 
sometimes  makes  a  form  of  will  in  cases  where  men  die  intes- 
tate.-^ It  interferes  with  matters  before  considered  merely 
personal,*  though  it  is  not  suffered  to  extend  its  powers  far  in 
this  direction. 

By  the  act  of  March  1,  1664,  the  towns  were  empowered 
to  choose  in   addition  to   this  important  department  of  town 

1  Municipal  Court  Rec,  Jan.  25,  1680,  Mar.  25,  1678. 

2  Municipal  Court  Records,  June  17,  1682. 

•  3  Municipal  Court  Records,  May  27,  1680.    Town  Rec.  June  18,  1698. 
*  Town  Meeting  Records,  No.  1,  Feb.  20,  1700. 


36         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

government — the  Town  Council — **alsoe  a  Clarke,  Treasurer, 
Constable  and  Sargant ;  and  that  sayd  officers  shall  receive 
ther  ingagement  from  one  of  the  Assistants."  * 

Of  these  offices  that  of  the  assistant  was  somewhat  like  that 
of  a  justice  of  peace  in  the  town.  Deeds  might  be  signed  in 
his  presence,  and  contracts  made  so  that  they  would  **be  as 
authentic  to  all  intents  and  purposes  unto  the  party  receiving 
of  the  deed  as  if  every  man  of  the  town  did  particularly  set 
his  hand  and  seal."  ^  The  duties  of  the  constable  were  the 
same  as  before  receiving  the  charter  of  1663.  He  might  also 
be  required  to  act  as  a  fence-viewer.  ^  The  duties  of  clerk, 
treasurer  and  sergeant  remain  practically  unchanged.  The 
number  of  constables  and  sergeants  sometimes  varies.* 

Besides  the  officers  ordered  by  the  colony  to  be  chosen,  the 
town  chose  such  others  as  it  deemed  needful  for  its  internal 
administration.  Hay  wards  are  from  time  to  time  elected, 
water-bailiffs  are  appointed  to  care  for  the  harbor  and  anchor- 
ing grounds,  a  town  sealer  of  weights  and  measures  is  elected 
towards  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  ^  The 
clerk  of  the  market  is  a  less  common  officer.  As  there  had 
been  provisions  made  for  a  "faire  to  be  annually  kept,"  ^  this 
officer  was  to  have  the  general  charge  of  its  arrangements. 
Overseers  of  the  general  fields  "^  were  appointed  to  see  that  the 
fences  about  the  common  were  kept  in  repair,  that  cattle  are 
not  pastured  there  contrary  to  town  orders  and  that  other 
general  regulations  are  enforced.  Justices  of  peace  do  not 
commonly  occur  before  the  year  1700  when  the  town  meeting 
records  show   that  *'John  Dexter  hath  this  day  in  the  open 


1  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  vol.  ii.,  p.  27. 

2  Town  Rec,  June  4,  1666. 

3  Ibid,  March  28,  1664. 

4  Town  Meeting  Rec.,  June  6,  1686  also  1693. 
^  Town  Meeting  Rec,  No.  1,  Jun'e  5,  1699. 

«  Town  Meeting  Rec,  Sept.  23,  1696. 

i  Town  Meeting  Rec,  No.  1,  Jan.  27,  1696-7. 


Town  and  Oity  Government  in  Providence.          37 

meeting  given  engagement  to  the  office  of  Justice  of  peace  and 
received  his  commission." * 

In  addition  to  these  minor  officers  there  were  waywardens 
and  surveyors  of  the  land.  These  surveyors  of  the  land  were 
at  first  chosen  in  the  town  meeting  and  performed  such  of  the 
duties  of  the  town  deputies  as  had  not  passed  to  the  Town 
Council  and  waywardens.  They  were  to  lay  out  and  have 
the  general  charge  of  the  assignment  of  lands.  After  a  few 
years  these  officers,  whose  duties  made  them  the  executive 
officers  of  the  proprietors,  came  to  be  elected  by  them,  and  the 
records  declare  that  the  "Purchasers  and  Proprietors  of  this 
towne  being  met  together  have  chosen  Capt.  Arthur  Fenner 
and  Tho :  Olney  surveyors  to  lay  out  lands  and  doe  what  fur- 
ther the  surveiors  are  to  doe." 

The  waywardens  were  the  surveyors  of  the  highways.^  As 
in  the  case  of  the  surveyors  of  the  lands  there  were  usually  two 
in  number.  They  are  sometimes  called  surveyors  of  the  high- 
ways or  men  *'to  see  the  repairing  of  the  highways."^  They 
performed  many  of  the  duties  entrusted  to  the  selectmen  in 
other  New  England  colonies.  While  they  were  to  see  to  the 
laying  out  and  construction  of  new  roads,  and  that  the  inhabi- 
tants did  their  proportionate  amount  of  the  work,  they  were 
also  to  see  that  the  highways  were  not  "damnified  by  build- 
ings or  other  hindrances."  The  waywardens  were,  chosen  in 
open  town  meeting.  This  name  for  the  officers  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  common  in  New  England  outside  of  Providence. 

Thus  far  there  have  been  presented  the  general  features  of 
the  government  at  Providence  before  the  18th  century.  The 
important  subject  of  land  administration  has  been  considered 
only  in  a  general  way.  In  almost  every  case  questions  in 
regard  to  land  had  hastened  the  development  of  those  forms  of 
local  government  which  appeared  in  Providence  during  the 
period  before  1700. 

^  June  18, 1698.     They  are  elected  by  the  General  Assembly  for  many  years. 
•2  Town  Ree.  June  7,  1669.     Town  Meeting  Rec.  June  7,  1686. 
2  Town  Meeting  Rec.  June,  1685.  ::.::"•—-,. 


38  Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

Land-Holding. 

The  land  had  first  been  purchased  by  Roger  Williams  from 
the  Indians.  Subsequent  Indian  claims  to  sections  over  which 
the  original  deed  gave  Williams  the  title,  were  frequently  set- 
tled by  additional  payments.  The  title  to  the  land  was  then, 
at  first,  in  Williams  alone. 

He  soon  received  the  twelve  other  settlers  into  the  * 'fellow- 
ship of  his  purchase,"  affirming  that  he  did  ''freely  and  fully, 
pass,  grant  and  make  over  equal  right  and  power  of  enjoying 
and  disposing  the  same  grounds  and  lands  unto  my  loving 
friends  and  neighbors."  ^  William  Harris,  one  of  his  "loving 
friends  and  neighbors,"  thus  describes  this  transfer:  "Seeing 
actually  and  immediately  he  did  put  us  into  equal  possession 
of  the  same  with  himself,  each  one  with  like  rights  and  powers 
to  dispose  thereof  as  ours  and  his."  ^  Though  his  companions 
were  put  into  "equal  possession"  and  became  freeholders,  yet 
Williams  found  that  this  did  not  prevent  discord,  for  he  says, 
"there  was  hardly  ever  in  New  England,  William  Harris,  his 
equal,  for  monstrous  evil  in  land  business  and  matters  of  dis- 
order as  to  civil  government."  ^ 

In  the  assignment  of  land,  Williams  seems  to  have  had  the 
first  choice,  and  subsequent  allotments  were  made  as  impar- 
tially as  possible.  Sometimes,  as  was  the  custom,  it  was 
decided  by  lot  "where  every  man  should  lie."  * 

The  landed  rights  of  a  full  proprietor  at  Providence,  seem 
to  have  embraced  a  "home  lot"  or  place  for  a  dwelling,  a 
"six  acre  lot "  usually  a  tract  of  arable  land  at  some  little  dis- 
tance, and  a  right  to  a  sufficient  amount  of  the  "general 
land  "  to  make  up  one  hundred  acres  and  also  if  there  should 
be  a  division  of  the  "common  lands  "  a  share  in  this  division. 

The  "home  lot"  or  "home  share"  usually  contained  about 
five  acres.     It  had   a   frontage  of   100   to    125   feet   on    the 

^  "Initial  Deed,"  Town  Rec. 

2  Harris  MSS.  Letter  1667,  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc. 

3  Letter  1667,  R.  I,  Hist.  Tracts,  No.  14. 

*  Mourt's  Relation,  p.  25,  Town  Rec,  Mar.  14,  1661. 


Town  and   City  Govei-nmeni  in  Providence.         39 

**Towne  Streete "  which  ran  **along  the  river  side"  and, 
therefore,  extended  well  back  from  the  highway.  These  lots 
were  not  always  of  the  same  proportions  but  always  long  in 
proportion  to  their  width  thus  making  the  settlement  compact 
along  the  street. 

The  **8ix  acre  lots"  were  somewhat  remote  from  the  town 
and  where  the  soil  was  considered  best  adapted  to  tillage. 

The  share  in  the  other  lands,  usually  about  eighty  or  ninety 
acres,  was  laid  out  by  the  town  deputies  or  by  the  town  sur- 
veyors so  as  not  to  interfere  with  the  claims  of  others.  Some- 
times these  lots  were  not  laid  out  for  some  years  after  the 
other  allotments  were  made. 

Shares  in  meadow  lands  were  held  and  sometimes  these 
were  granted  by  the  town  in  exchange  for  other  lands  which 
the  inhabitant  might  surrender.  "Warehouse  lots"  too  were 
not  infrequently  granted  to  such  as  would  use  them  in  the 
interests  of  trade.  Other  lots  are  sometimes  granted  under 
special  conditions. 

An  old  deed  shows  the  general  character  of  the  divisions. 
It  signifies  that  the  town  has  laid  out  and  delivered  to  the 
grantee  **as  his  purchase  right,  certain  parcels  of  land  accord- 
ing to  the  parcels  of  other  Purchasers,  namely,  a  five  acre 
house  lot,  sixty  acres,  twenty  acres,  six  acres  and  five 
acres  "^  and  **also  a  spot  of  meadow  about  one  and  one-half 
acres  also  about  three-fourths  of  an  acre  of  meadow,"  making 
in  all  ninety-eight  and  one-fourth  acres  **more  or  less" 
according  to  the  survey. 

This  was  the  usual  amount  of  land  to  which  the  purchaser 
had  a  title  in  the  town.  Besides  this  he  had  certain  rights  in 
subsequent  divisions  of  land  and  to  the  use  of  the  common 
lands  or  ** general  fields."  Some  other  lands  were  considered 
the  property  of  the  town  as  a  whole.  Proceeds  from  the  sales 
of  these  lands  passed  into  the  general  treasury,  not  to  the 
proprietors. 

1  Town  Records,  Sept.  25,  1661. 


40         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

Regulations  and  orders  involving  land  interests  especially 
fill  many  pages  of  the  early  records.  It  was,  soon  after  the 
division  of  the  lands,  ordered  *'that  none  sell  his  lot  granted 
in  our  Liberties  to  any  person  but  to  an  Inhabitant  without 
consent  of  the  Town."  ^  Nor  did  those  who  thus  i)urchased 
land  acquire  a  right  to  all  the  unsold  lands  in  the  limits  of  the 
town,  for  they  were  told  that  "they  must  not  think  that  they 
bought  and  sold  the  right  to  all  the  lands  and  meadows  in 
common  and  100  acres  presently  and  the  power  of  voting  and 
all  for  30s."  ^  If  after  obtaining  land  they  did  not  occupy 
it,  they  might  be  fined, ^  or  the  land  might  revert  to  the  town, 
as  the  record  says,  after  eighteen  months  *'fall  into  the  Town's 
hand  again."  *  Exactness  in  the  use  of  terms  describing 
lands  is  not  characteristic  of  the  early  records.  The  following 
is  exceptional :  'Hhe  right  of  Commoning  within  the  Commons 
of  this  Town  of  Providence,  that  is  to  say,  for  Commonage 
for  cattle,  privileges  for  fire  wood,  for  Building  timber,  for 
timber  for  fencing,  etc.,  but  no  claim  to  be  laid  to  any  land 
thereby."  ^  Right  of  commoning  might  be  granted  in  pro- 
portion to  the  amount  of  land  held,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
"quarter-right  purchasers,"  who  have  "the  right  of  common- 
ing according  to  the  said  proportion  of  lands,"  ^  or  it  might  be 
a  special  privilege  as  upon  petition  of  "John  Smyth  "it  is 
ordered  "that  the  said  John  Smyth  shall  have  liberty  for  feed- 
ing four  Cattle  and  taking  of  firing  and  fencing,  etc.,  untill 
the  Towne  shall  see  Cause  to  the  contrary,"  ''  and  in  some 
cases  is  forbidden  altogether,^  while  instances  where  rights  to 
land  are  much  confused  are  not  infrequent.     In  general  it  may 


1  Town  Rec,  3  die  of  the  10  month. 

2  Letter  of  Williams,  R.  I.  Hist.  Tracts  No.  14. 

3  Town  Rec,  3  die  of  the  10  month. 

4  Ibid. 

•^  Ibid,  Oct.  3,  1666. 

«  Ibid,  19th  11  mo.,  1645, 

7  Ibid,  Jan.  27,  1659. 

8  Ibid,  Oct.  27,  1659. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence.  41 

be  said  that  the  land  system  at  Providence  was  more  simple 
than  that  in  many  sections  ot  New  England.* 

Ownership  of  land  was  usually  made  the  basis  of  taxation  in 
the  early  years,  for  this  was  the  source  of  the  town's  income. 
Its  inhabitants  were  not  capitalists  nor  were  they  supported  by 
outside  aid.  Thus  they  order  '<That  a  Rate  shall  speedily  be 
Levied  upon  ye  inhabitants  of  this  Town  on  all  such  who  hath 
Right  of  Commoning  this  Towne-shippe  of  Providence. "^ 
These  rates  are  sometimes  payable  in  beef,  pork  and  pease,  ^ 
and  sometimes  in  "peage  "  or  wampum.  The  inhabitants  were 
on  certain  occasions  ordered  to  bring  in  * 'their  own  account 
of  their  property,"  the  town  orderly  assembled  might  fix  the 
amount  which  each  man  was  to  pay,  but  the  more  usual 
method  was  to  appoint  a  number  of  men  to  assess  the  inhabi- 
tants.* Taxes  in  Providence  were  always  for  civil  purposes 
within  the  colony  limits. 

The  town  writing  to  Sir  Henry  Vane  in  1654  say,  <'Sir, 
we  have  not  known  what  an  excise  means ;  we  have  almost 
forgotten  what  tithes  are,  yea,  or  taxes  either,  to  church  or 
commonwealth."^  In  this  colony  they  had  never  been  "con- 
sumed with  the  over-zealous  fire  of  the  (so-called)  godly 
christian  magistrates."  While  the  records  of  the  neighboring 
colonies  teem  with  references  to  religious  deportment  those  of 
Providence  are  marked  by  the  absence  of  any  except  civil  ordi- 
nances. One  writing  of  Massachusetts  said,  *'In  seven  years, 
among  thousands  there  dwelling,  I  never  saw  any  drunk,  nor 
heard  an  oath,  nor  [saw]  any  begging,  nor  Sabbath  broken."^ 
This  could  not  be  said  of  Rhode  Island.  Punishment  of  "no- 
torious and  customarie  swearers  and  cursers"'"  was  provided 
for,  and  it  was  also  thought  wise,  as   there   had   been  "some 


1  Nation,  Jan.  10,  1878,  p.  23. 

2  Town  Meeting  Rec,  No.  3,  Feb.  25,  1678. 
•*  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  vol.  1,  p.  481. 

*  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  vol.  iii.  p.  22.     Town  Rec.  March  25,  1661. 

5  Nar.  Club,  Pub.,  vol.  vi.  p.  268. 

^  Hugh  Peter's  case  impartially  considered. 

7  R.  I.  Col.  Rec.  vol.  i.  p.  314. 


42  Town  and   City  Government  in  Pr'ovldence. 

incivility  "  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  to  refer  the  question  to 
the  town  as  to  whether  it  would  not  be  advisable  to  submit  to 
the  town  the  question  of  granting  the  children  and  servants  a 
day  **to  recreate  themselves."^  Seldom  indeed  were  measures 
of  any  kind  taken  in  regard  to  purely  religious  questions. 
This  separation  of  secular  and  religious  power  was  a  cardinal 
principle  of  the  founder  of  the  town.  Of  Roger  Williams 
Neal  quaintly  says,  *'had  he  never  dabbled  in  Divinity  he 
would  have  been  esteemed  a  great  and  useful  man."^  While 
this  may  be  true,  the  town  of  Providence  has  no  reason  to 
regret  that  **  dabbling  in  Divinity "  led  its  founder  to  a  firm 
belief  in  the  separation  of  church  and  state. 

Survival  op  English  Institutions. 

In  the  system  of  local  administration  established  before  the 
close  of  the  17th  century,  the  settlers  at  Providence  showed  a 
peculiar  capacity  for  self-government.  It  would  be  unwar- 
rantable to  consider  this  system  a  result  of  conscious  imitation 
of  English  and  Teutonic  institutions,  while  it  would  be  equally 
unreasonable  to  say  there  was  in  this  system  no  manifestation 
of  race  tendencies. 

The  place  chosen  for  the  first  settlement,  near  a  spring,  was 
the  most  suitable  and  natural.  The  name  given  to  the  town 
was  somewhat  exceptional  in  its  character.  It  was  the  expres- 
sion of  personal  gratitude  to  God  which  led  Roger  Williams 
to  call  the  place  '* Providence."  It  was  not  in  remembrance 
of  his  home  across  the  sea.  It  does  not  call  to  mind  favors 
from  any  patron  at  the  English  court.  It  does  not  describe 
any  physical  peculiarity  of  the  place  nor  hand  down  the  name 
of  the  aborigines  who  once  occupied  the  region,  as  do  the 
names  of  so  many  New  England  towns. 

It  is  true  that  the  religious  spirit  of  Williams  had  prompted 
him  to  call  the  place  Providence,  yet  in  the  development  of  its 
government  the  religious  element  is  of  little  importance.     The 

1  K.  I.  Col.  Rec,  vol.  i.,  p.  280. 

2  History  of  New  England,  vol.  i.  p.  144. 


Town  and   City  Government  in  Providence,         43 

absence  of  this  element  especially  distinguishes  Providence 
from  other  New  England  settlements.  The  comparatively 
slight  influence  of  the  religious  over  the  civil  authority  made 
the  government  different  from  the  English  in  its  nature. 
Here  there  was  no  vestery,  no  parish  and  no  tithes.  Rarely 
had  a  community  of  Englishmen  been  so  isolated  and  so  inde- 
pendent. They  were  permitted  to  work  out  for  themselves  an 
unsolved  problem  in  civil  government  to  find  whether  civil 
power  could  be  fully  maintained  apart  from  the  interference  of 
the  spiritual  authority.  The  village  communities  of  England 
afford  no  parallel  in  their  development  to  the  '^lively  experi- 
ment "  *  tried  at  Providence. 

In  the  allotment  of  land  they  follow  not  consciously  but  yet 
naturally  old  Germanic  customs.  There  was  the  ma7'h  of 
the  village  i.  e.  a  place  for  the  dwelling,  the  common  for  wood 
and  pasture  and  the  arable  mark  for  tillage.  Like  their 
ancestors,  too,  they  often  changed  the  land  which  they  had 
taken  up  for  other  unoccupied  land,  only  it  must  be  with  the 
town's  permission.  The  dwellings  were  also  placed  according 
to  the  manner  described  by  Tacitus  "quisque  domum  spatio 
circumdat."  ^  The  home  lot  at  Providence  gave  ample  evi- 
dence that  there  was  no  lack  of  a  spirit  of  individuality.  Each 
lot  usually  contained  a  house  with  a  lawn  in  front  of  it,  a  gar- 
den back  of  the  house  and  an  orchard,  and  still  farther  back 
the  family  burial  place.  The  owner  of  the  lot  seems  to  have 
had  the  independence  of  the  Germanic  "house-father."'^  In 
course  of  a  few  years  the  land  taken  up  by  the  settlers  was 
confirmed  to  them  by  the  town,  and  further  grants  were  made 
by  deed  from  the  town  seeming  to  follow  the  old  transition  from 
folcland  to  hocland.  Market  Square  has  probably  been 
public  property  from  the  time  of  the  first  settlement  as  there  is 
no  deed  of  that  tract.*     In  the  regulations  in  regard  to  the 

1  Charter  of  1663. 

^  Germania  cap.  16. 

^  Eoss,  Land-Holding  Among  Germans,  p.  17. 

*  City  Documents,  1887,  Auditors'  Rep.  106. 


44         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

common  lands  there  are  many  parallels  to  Germanic  and  Eng- 
lish laws. 

The  officers  elected  at  Providence  were  usually  such  as  the 
town,  for  the  better  management  of  its  affairs,  was  compelled 
to  entrust  with  power.  The  "hue  and  cry"  was  not  long 
raised.  The  powers  of  the  town  constable  and  town  sergeant 
were  much  the  same  as  those  of  English  constables  and  sher- 
iffs. Both  were  as  among  the  Anglo-Saxons  elective  offices.  ^ 
These  officers  sometimes  proclaimed  the  statutes  established  by 
the  general  assembly  as  did  the  Anglo-Saxon  sheriff  ^  the 
royal  orders.  When  the  constable  conducted  a  criminal  from 
the  town  he  passed  him  over  to  the  constable  of  the  next  town, 
who,  if  necessary,  was  to  conduct  him  to  the  constable  of  the 
next  town,  and  in  this  manner  the  criminal  was  to  be  escorted 
until  he  arrived  at  his  destination,  thus  closely  following  the 
English  custom.^  In  the  Hay  wards,  so  called  not  from  duties 
in  regard  to  the  hay  but  as  wards  of  the  hedges  or  fences,  the 
old  institutions  again  appeared,  but  swineherds  and  many  of 
the  minor  officers  do  not  seem  to  have  been  appointed  at  Prov- 
idence until  the  18tli  century.  The  election  of  two  surveyors 
or  overseers  of  highways  was  common  in  England,*  as  was 
also  the  impressment  of  men  for  the  mending  of  the  roads. 
All  the  town  officers  were  as  in  the  native  country  to  be  chosen 
from  inhabitants  of  the  town .  ^ 

The  meetings  of  the  town  in  open  air  would  seem  to  point 
to  very  early  customs.  That  the  settlement  at  Providence  did 
not  grow  up  around  a  meeting  house  was  almost  wholly  due 
to  the  character  of  the  settlers  themselves.  The  consideration  of 
matters  by  those  assembled  in  town  meetings  is  much  after  the 
fashion  of  the  old  English  county  court  where  questions  were 
decided  by  conclamation,'^     It  had  been  no  unusual  proceed- 

^  Kemble,  Saxons  in  England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  165. 

2  Ibid,  p.  233. 

2  Lambard,  Justice  of  Peace,  p.  52. 

*  Lambard,  Justice  of  Peace,  p.  36. 

^  Madox  Firma  Burgi,  p.  279. 

^  Palgrave  English  Commonwealth,  part  I,  cap.  21. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence,         45 

ing  in  England  to  have  deeds  given  and  acknowledged  and 
contracts  made  in  the  presence  of  the  people,^  or  as  the  Provi- 
dence Records  express  it,  '*read  in  the  ears  of  the  town  "  and 
recorded  <'in  the  face  of  the  town."  The  laws  concerning  res- 
idence in  the  town  also  follow  earlier  laws.  Indeed  in  all 
departments  there  are  agreements  in  regulations  and  customs 
which  are  something  more  than  mere  coincidences,  yet  surely 
not  the  result  of  any  conscious  imitation  of  English  or  Teu- 
tonic institutions. 

Interruption  of  Town  Functions. 

The  government  developed  during  the  last  half  of  the  17th 
century  at  Providence  involved  frequent  union  of  jurisdictions 
almost  incompatible,^  yet  it  continually  grew  stronger.  Wil- 
liams said  he  felt  obliged  to  tolerate  some  evils  for  the  common 
good.^  It  was  indeed  fortunate  that  this  great-souled  man 
was  permitted  to  spend  nearly  fifty  years  in  the  town  which 
he  had  planted  and  done  so  much  to  foster.  There  were 
interruptions  to  the  onward  movement  which  has  been  de- 
scribed. Frequent  discussions  had  taken  place  within  the 
town  itself.  Sometimes  the  political  activity  of  the  inhabitants 
became  so  great  that  two  town  meetings  were  necessary  to  give 
it  scope.  In  these  meetings  two  sets  of  officers  were  elected 
and  each  claimed  the  right  to  serve.*  The  general  assembly 
was  called  upon  to  decide  which  was  lawfully  chosen.  In 
1651  Coddington  returned  from  England  with  a  commission 
as  governor  for  life  over  the  islands  of  Aquedneck  and 
Conanicut.^  The  little  colony  of  Providence  Plantations  fell 
apart  at  once.  **The  government  of  the  towns,  not  indeed 
each  one  by  itself,  but  by  twos  in  combination,  was  resumed."^ 

^  Historical  Eliensis,  cap.  xxxiv. 

2  Municipal  Corporations  Report,  England,  1835,  p.  41. 

3  The  Bloudy  Tenet,  p.  85. 
*  R.  I.  Col.  Rec.  1667. 

•  ^  Colonial  Papers,  1650,  March  27,  April  11. 
^  Foster  Town  Government  in  R.  I.,  J.  H.  U.  Studies,  p.  21. 

Ja^^   Of  THE        ^ 


46         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

Although  the  town  government  was  interrupted  by  this  episode 
it  was  not  materially  changed  in  form,  and  when  Codding- 
ton's  commission  was  revoked  the  towns  returned  to  their 
previous  colonial  organization. 

King  Philip's  war  fell  heavily  upon  Rhode  Island,  and  its 
effects  were  for  some  years  very  evident.  Although  Provi- 
dence had  never  been  surrounded  by  a  palisade,  tun,  zaun  or 
hedge  for  its  protection,  it  had  thus  far  escaped  attack  from 
the  Indians  who  were  by  no  means  few  in  this  region.  Wil- 
liams himself  says  **one  would  meet  with  a  dozen  Indian  towns 
in  twenty  miles. "^  During  this  war  Providence  suffered  from 
the  Indian  ravages,  and  martial  law  gave  place  to  the  town 
government,  and  matters  concerning  ** watching,  warding, 
scouting  "  and  the  like,  which  were  the  most  important  at  this 
time,  were  by  the  town  meeting  referred  to  a  *'Counsell  of 
war."^  After  the  war  was  finished  the  usual  form  of  govern- 
ment was  resumed. 

Many  changes  were  made  in  the  local  administration  during 
the  rule  of  Edmund  Andros.  The  whole  colony  of  **E.hode 
Island  and  Providence  Plantations  "  became  a  **mere  county"  in 
the  grand  division  of  New  England  over  which  Andros's  power 
extended.  The  union  of  the  towns  was  no  longer  continued. 
The  towns  fell  back  upon  their  original  forms  of  self-govern- 
ment to  some  extent.  The  English  institution  of  selectmen 
was  now  impressed  upon  them,  and  it  was  voted  *'that  the 
town  do  choose  five  men  who  shall  be  termed  selectmen." 
These  were  **by  his  Excellency  [Andros]  appointed  justices  of 
the  peace, "^  and  had  about  the  same  powers  as  had  been 
entrusted  to  the  constables  and  other  officers.  They  also 
exercised  many  of  the  functions  of  the  town  council. 
After  Andros  was  removed  from  power  it  was  declared  by  the 
colony  that  *'we  have  thought  it  most  safe  for  the  keeping  of 

^  Young's  Chronicles,  p.  280. 

2  Town  Meeting  Rec,  Mar.  4,  1677. 

3  Ibid,  June  6.  1687. 


Town  and   Gity  Government  in  Providence.         47 

the  peace  of  our  Colony  to  lay  hold  of  our  Charter  privileges 
establishing  our  officers  according  to  their  former  station."^ 
Thus  the  towns  reverted  to  their  former  system  of  administra- 
tion modified  but  little  by  this  interference  on  the  part  of  the 
home  government.  Selectmen  cease  to  be  chosen  at  Providence 
and  the  officers  of  1685  are  again  elected.  Dissensions  still 
arise,  officers  sometimes  refuse  to  take  their  '* engagements" 
or  oaths  of  office,  but  in  general  the  government  continues  its 
course  of  development,  and  may,  in  1700^  be  said  to  have 
attained  a  settled  form. 

This  government  had  become  established  in  spite  of  unfavor- 
able circumstances.  In  the  ancient  and  mediaeval  munici- 
palities the  government  was  more  usually  called  upon  to  pro- 
vide for  a  growth  from  within  the  town  itself.  In  America 
the  greatest  increase  was  for  many  years  from  without  the 
town  limits  and  in  the  case  of  Providence  these  accretions  were 
far  from  harmonious.  Every  change  in^  the  form  of  govern- 
ment was  made  with  extreme  reluctance.  The  resultant  of 
these  forces,  so  different  in  their  nature,  acting  at  Providence, 
was  rather  along  the  line  of  general  Teutonic  development  than 
in  accord  with  that  of  any  particular  time  or  place.  While  it 
is  remarkable  that  this  particular  form  of  local  administration 
was  established  it  is  likewise  remarkable  that  in  the  midst  of 
such  divergent  opinions  any  government  at  ail  was  established. 
Neighboring  colonies  stood  ready  to  extend  iheir  jurisdiction 
over  the  country  about  Narragansett  Bay  and  had  it  not  been 
for  the  influence  of  Williams,  no  doubt,  would  have  accom- 
plished their  object.  An  English  scholar  speaking  of  the 
Rhode  Island  settlers  and  the  development  of  its  government 
recently  said,  *'out  of  this  material  was  formed  a  vigorous  and 
progressive  commonwealth,  whose  institutions  were  shaped  in 
obedience  to  her  actual  wants,  and  bore  no  trace  of  any  fanci- 


1  J.  C.  Brown  MSS.,  No.  14,  vol.  iii. 


48  Town  and   City  Government  in  Providence. 

ful  theory  or  exclusive  temper."  ^  Here  the  theory  of  reli- 
f^ious  freedom  had  been  vindicated.  Here  it  had  been  shown 
**How  all  Religions  should  enjoy  their  liberty,  Justice  its  due 
regularity,  civil  cohabitation  moral  honesty,  in  one  and  the 
same  Jurisdiction."  The  system  was  not  perfected  but  fifty 
years  of  trial  had  shown  its  adaptability  to  meet  the  wants  of  a 
comnmnity  in  which  the  principle  of  separation  of  civil  and 
religious  authority  was  fundamental. 


Doyle,  Puritan  Colonies,  vol.  i,  p.  180. 


CHAPTER  ni. 


Period  of  Municipal  Growth,  1700-1830. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  municipal 
government  of  Providence  had  attained  a  definite  form.  The 
exercise  of  town  functions  now  became  more  and  more  regular. 
Interruptions  and  marked  changes  in  the  system  of  administra- 
tion, such  as  those  of  the  earlier  years,  no  longer  appear.  While 
in  the  neighboring  colonies  religious  controversy  was  taking  on  a 
new  phase  in  Rhode  Island  the  civil  and  religious  authorities  had 
learned  to  recognize  the  limits  of  their  respective  powers.  Massa- 
chusetts found  it  necessary  to  pass  laws  to  prevent  emigration,  i 
Providence  refused  many  who  applied  for  admission  to  citizen- 
ship. In  1700  Providence  had  a  population  of  about  1,200  and 
it  steadily  increased  until  at  the  end  of  the  century  it  numbered 
more  than  7,000.  Gradually  the  inhabitants  began  to  build  at  a 
distance  from  the  "  Towne  Street."  Churches  were  built  and  the 
different  denominations  worshiped  unmolested  by  the  civil  power. 
The  town  was  again  taxed  in  the  same  ratio  as  before  King 
Philip's  War.  It  had  recovered  its  former  position  in  the  colony 
in  respect  to  importance 

In  the  early  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  intercourse  with 
the  neighboring  colonies  becomes  more  frequent.  Commerce 
begins  to  occujDy  the  minds  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  little  settle- 
ment so  favorably  situated  at  the  head  of  the  bay.  The  proprie- 
tors complain  that  "There  is  a  continual  pressing  upon  the  town 
by  people  for  grants  of  warehouse  lots  by  the  salt  water  side 
along  the  town  street. "^  This  spuit  of  commerce  became 
stronger  as  the  century  advanced.  Governor  Cranston  in  1708 
speaks  of  the  strong  inclination  the  youth  have  for  the  sea. 
Scarcity  of  good  land,  the  number  of  harbors  and  abundance  of 
ship  timber  makes   ship    building   a  leading   industry.     Samuel 

J-.  Acts  and  Eesolves,  vol.  i.,  1694  and  1700. 
^  Town  Meeting  Eec.  July  27,  1704. 


50         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

Davis  in  his  diary,  1789,  says:  "  Ships  of  great  burden,  800  tons 
and  more,  are  built  at  Providence,  thirty  miles  from  the  ocean."  i 
Indeed  Providence  at  one  time  surpassed  New  York  in  the 
magnitude  of  its  shipping  interests.  ^  Wealth  increases  and 
banks  are  established.  The  town  ceases  to  be  a  mere  agricultural 
community. 

The  Proprietoes. 

Land  questions  become  less  important.  The  class  desiring 
"  warehouse  lots  by  the  water  side  "  become  more  numerous. 
The  interests  of  the  "  purchasers  and  proprietors  "  are  no  longer 
the  same  as  those  of  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants.  The  pro- 
prietors become  a  class  by  themselves.  From  1718  they  hold 
their  meetings  apart  from  the  town,  and  have  a  separate  clerk 
and  records.  These  meetings  of  the  proprietors  were  held  as 
early  as  1653  for  the  Records  mention  "Acts  and  Agreements 
made  and  concluded  upon  by  the  Purchasers  in  their  several 
meetings."^  Such  meetings  were  legalized  as  early  as  1682. ^ 
The  proprietors  make  certain  orders  in  regard  to  the  common 
lands,  as  in  1709,  that  "  no  strangers,  nor  any  other  person  who 
is  not  interested  in  the  common  of  our  plantation  in  his  own 
right  shall  cut  and  carry  away  or  make  improvement  of  any  ce- 
dar or  pine  timber  "  '^  without  an  order  from  the  purchasers.  In 
a  division  of  the  common  the  proprietors  are  to  have  "  their  pro- 
portionable part  thereof,  according  to  quality  and  quantity."^ 
Committees  are  chosen  by  the  proprietors  "  for  the  dividing  of 
those  common  lands  in  Providence  aforesaid,  called  the  stated 
common.'"^  At  first  all  the  townsmen  of  Providence  were  pro- 
prietors, but  soon  their  number  was  exceeded  by  those  who  had 
no  share  in  the  common  lands.  In  a  town  meeting  of  the  whole 
body  of  the  inhabitants  the  interests  of  the  proprietors   suffered 


1  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.  ii„  29. 

^  Staples  Annals,  p.  351. 

i  Town  Becords,  28  of  2  mo.  1653. 

A  Public  Laws,  R.  I.,  May  3,  1682. 

^  Town  Meeting  Rec,  Feb.  6,  1709-10. 

^  Moses  Brown  Papers,  March  13,  1722-23, 

T-  Ibid. 


Town  and  Oity  Government  in  Providence.         51 

and  they  were  forced  to  hold  independent  meetings,  and  at  these 
meetings  the  surveyors  of  the  lands  were  after  a  time  elected. 
The  number  of  proprietors  never  exceeded  one  hundred  and  one, 
as  Staples  says,  and  they  held  meetings  as  late  as  1836.  In  them 
were  vested  the  rights  to  common  lands,  and  as  these  lands  be- 
came less  and  less  in  extent  the  power  of  the  proprietors,  as  a 
body,  waned,  and  at  length  ceased  to  be  felt. 

Freemen. 

Besides  the  proprietors  there  were  owners  of  land  not  entitled 
to  any  share  in  the  division  of  common  lands.  The  proprietors 
and  these  freeholders,  together  with  their  eldest  sons,  constituted 
the  voting  class  of  the  town.  An  act  of  1723  declares  that  "no 
person  whatsoever  shall  be  admitted  a  freemen  of  any  town  in  this 
colony,  unless  the  person  admitted  be  a  freeholder  of  lands,  tene- 
ments or  hereditaments  in  such  town  where  he  shall  be  admitted 
free,  of  the  value  of  forty  shillings  per  annum,  or  the  eldest  son 
of  such  freeholder."  i  The  amount  necessary  to  qualify  an  inhab- 
itant to  vote  varies  from  time  to  time,  especially  on  account  of 
the  fluctuations  in  the  value  of  paper  money.  At  length  the 
qualification  becomes  fixed,  and  only  those  having  a  $134  free- 
hold estate,  or  one  yielding  $7  per  annum^  are  allowed  to  vote^ 
by  virtue  of  their  property,  while  the  eldest  sons  are  permitted 
to  vote  as  sons  of  freeholders.  Earely  inhabitants  ^yere  admit- 
ted freemen  "  by  courtesy."  A  careful  record  was  kept  after  a 
time  of  those  admitted  "  by  producing  deed  "  and  as  "  eldest 
son."  Bancroft,  speaking  of  Rhode  Island,  says  "  it  attached  the 
franchise,  'not  to  the  inhabitant,'  but  to  the  soil;  and  as  a  wrong 
principle  always  leads  to  practical  error,  it  fostered  family  pride 
by  a  distant  imitation  of  the  English  law  of  primogeniture."* 


1  Digest  1730,  p.  131. 

•^  This  is  an  interesting  survival  of  tlie  forty  sliilling  ffeeholding  qnalifica- 
tions  which  was  instituted  in  England  as  early  as  1430,  [Stubbs,  vol.  iii., 
p.  Ill,]  and  this  property  requirement  still  survives  in  Ehode  Island. 
'  ^  Digest  1798. 

*  History  of  U.  S.  iii.,  p.  69. 


5%         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

The  Division  of  the  Town. 

As  tlie  population  increased  and  commerce  and  trade  assumed 
greater  importance,  the  interests  of  the  inhabitants  became 
more  diverse.  "  The  compact  part  of  the  town  "  began  to  feel 
the  need  of  different  regulations  for  its  government  from  those 
adapted  to  the  remoter  portions.  At  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  the  town  of  Providence  included  nearly  all  of  the 
northern  part  of  the  present  State  of  Rhode  Island  west  of  Narra- 
gansett  Bay  and  the  Seekonk  River.  As  the  portions  of  the  terri- 
tory at  a  distance  fi'om  the  village  of  Providence  became  settled, 
the  inhabitants  found  it  difficult  to  go  ten  miles  or  more  to  town 
meeting,  nor  were  the  same  town  laws  suited  to  all  sections.  The 
settlers  at  a  distance  did  not  wish  to  be  taxed  for  improvements 
in  the  more  thickly  populated  section.  In  1730  a  petition  was 
presented  to  the  General  Assembly  praying  that  a  committee 
might  be  appointed  to  "  divide  the  town  of  Providence  into  three 
or  four  parts  as  they  should  think  most  proj)er."i  This  divisiorr 
was  made  setting  off  about  three  fourths  the  territory  under  the 
town  names  of  Smithfield,  Scituate  and  Glocester. 

The  limits  of  the  town  were  now  sufficiently  restricted  to  render 
the  town  government  effective  for  a  time.  Lack  of  common  in- 
terest, on  account  of  the  rapid  growth  of  the  compact  portions  of 
the  town,  leads  to  the  setting  off  of  Cranston  in  1754,  and  Johnston  in 
1759,  North  Providence  was  set  off  in  1765  and  in  17G7  a  part  of 
it  was  again  annexed  to  Providence.  The  division  of  Rhode 
Island  into  counties  had  but  little  influence  upon  the  town  gov- 
ernment. "  The  compact  part  of  the  town  of  Providence  "  was 
always  the  ruling  section  and  by  and  for  this  part  the  laws  and 
regulations  were  largely  made. 

The  spirit  which  had  led  to  these  divisions  was  for  the  most 
part  sectional.  The  extreme  individualism  which  had  manifested 
itself  in  the  seventeenth  century  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  broadens,  to  some  extent,  into  a  town  spirit.  The 
settlers  begin  to  realize  more  strongly  their  common  interests. 
The  town  meetings  are  devoted  more  to  the  discussion  of  general 
affairs.     Lots  are  set  apart  by  the  town  for   a   "  training  field, 

J"  Town  Meeting  Rec,  April  27,  1730. 


Town  and   City  Government  in  Providence,         53 

burying  ground  and  other  public  uses."i  Regulations  are  made 
with  reference  to  the  growth  of  the  town.  More  ready  and 
more  generous  provision  is  made  for  highways.  ^  Tax  assessors 
are  chosen.  Town  officers,  when  called  upon  to  render  much 
service,  are  paid.  Public  spirit  becomes  stronger,  the  govern- 
ment becomes  more  stable  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  town  might  be  said  to  have  attained  to  a  measure  of 
municipal  self- consciousness. 

Exercise  of  Town  Functions. 

The  system  of  government  was  now  completely  established. 
Its  development  to  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  city  charter 
was  accompanied  by  an  increasing  tendency  to  centralization 
and  delegation  of  power.  The  townsmen  more  and  more  occupied 
in  business  were  willing  to  leave  the  management  of  minor  local 
affairs  to  the  officers  elected  at  the  town  meetings.  The  business 
transacted  at  these  meetings  is  more  and  more  of  a  routine  sort. 
The  officers  increase  in  number  and  less  frequently  decline  to 
serve,  resolutions  in  regard  to  local  improvements  occupy  more 
space  in  the  town  records,  and  disputed  land  questions  become 
less  frequently  matters  for  town  action.  Such  miscellaneous 
matters  as  occasionally  come  before  the  meetings  are  usually  acted 
upon  by  the  whole  body  and  are  not,  unless  it  be  necessary,  left 
to  committees  during  the  earlier  years  of  the  18th  century.  Com- 
mittees become  more  frequent  during  the  latter  y^ars  of  the 
town  government.  The  variety  of  questions  discussed  covers  * 
the  range  of  town  affairs  from  taxes  upon  land  to  bounties  upon 
rats.  For  "the  encouragement  of  good  manners,  etc.,"^  certain 
inhabitants  petition  that  no  bounty  be  allowed  for  squirrels  killed 
on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  It  is  voted  that  *'  no  oysters  or 
shells  should  be  taken  up  or  catched  under  the  bridge  at  Wey- 
bossett,"  under  penalty  of  a  "20s  fine."  The  town  meetings 
decide  that  geese  shall  not  trespass  upon  the  common,^  that 
swine  shall  not  roam  about,  ^  that  if  water  breaks  forth  from  the 
cellar  of  a  house  upon  the  east  side  of  the  "  Towne  Streete  "  the 


'^  Town  Meeting  Rec,  1700.         ^  Ibid  June  2,  1701. 
3^  Ibid  Jan.  24,  1723-24.        ^Ibid  Jan.  27,  1720-21.        ^  Feb.  6,  1710-11. 

Off  TffiB         "^^ 


54         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

owner  "should  as  soon  as  he  conveniently  can  make^some  subto- 
raneous  Passage  for  sd  water  by  which  it  may  be  conveined  into 
the  River  of  this  Town."i  At  a  special  meeting  in  1762  action 
was  taken  to  secure  the  supervising  of  "  all  kind  of  stage  plays  or 
theatrical  shows''^  In  1776  it  is  voted  that  the  "  Market  House 
be  entirely  shut  up  and  not  opened  on  the  Sabbath  Da^^s."^  The 
first  entry  in  the  ninth  book  of  Town  Records  is  a  description  of 
the  "Great  Storm  of  1815."  Many  and  various  are  the  questions 
considered  in  the  town  meetings. 

Although  so  many  matters  are  discussed  in  the  town  meetings  yet, 
at  the  same  time  the  duties  of  the  Town  Council  are  increased.  It 
retains  its  probate  and  other  judicial  functions.  It  forbids  the 
destruction  of  fish  and  the  pollution  of  rivers,^  has  the  oversight 
of  the  public  market,  regulates  the  "  Town  Watch  and  the  Police 
of  the  Streets  and  Public  Places,"^  exercises  the  authority  of  a 
board  of  health  and  quarantine,  ^^  establishes  "  an  assize  of  bread," 
sees  to  the  laying  out  and  paving  of  streets,  "^  when  the  school 
sj^stem  is  established  has  certain  authority  over  the  management 
of  the  schools,  in  time  of  war  exercises  certain  military  powers, 
considers  petitions  of  those  desiring  to  inhabit  the  town,  cares  for 
"  the  poor,  imbecile  and  insane,"  has  certain  authority  over  town 
lands  and  property  beside  many  minor  functions.  The  Town 
Councilmen  seem  usually  to  have  been  able  men  and  to  have  per- 
formed their  duties  satisfactorily  to  the  voters.  An  important 
change  seems  to  have  taken  place  in  the  personnel  of  the  Town 
Council  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  .before  the 
town  was  divided.  The  assistants  no  longer  sit  with  the  Council- 
men  to  consider  town  affairs  and  six  men  are  elected  "  for  the 
Town  Council."  Later  a  State  law  fixes  the  number  of  the  Town 
Council  and  leaves  out  the  assistants.  ^  It  is  stated  that  the  rea- 
son for  this  change  was  because  the  General  Assembly  did  not 
consider  it  wise  to  allow  cases  to  be  appealed  from  the  town  to 
the  General  Court  which  might  be  composed  of  those  who  in 
their  capacity  as  town  officers  had  already  decided  upon  the  case.  ^ 


1  Town  Meeting  Kec,  Jan.  27,  1735."      ^  Ibid  July  19,  1762. 

i  Ibid  Oct.  24,  1776. 

^  Digest  1719,  p.  110. 

5  Town  Meeting  Kec,  Nov.  1825.        ^  Ibid  1739.        ^Ibid  1784. 

^  Digest  1767,  p.  87.        ^  Ibid  1767. 


Town  and  Qity  Government  in  Providence,         55 

Although  the  Town  Council  considers  so  many  matters,  yet  the 
execution  of  most  town  orders  is  left  to  the  regular  town  officers. 
The  officers  during  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  eighteenth  century 
are  much  the  same  as  during  the  last  decade  of  the  preceding 
century.  After  the  erection  of  the  new  "  county  house  "  in  which 
the  town  meeting  was  held  in  1732,  there  seems  to  have  been  a 
steady  increase  in  the  number  of  officers  elected.  The  Moderator 
and  Treasurer  perform  the  same  duties  as  in  earlier  years.  The 
Town  Clerk  is  required  to  attend  to  the  registration  of  those 
qualified  to  vote.  The  duties  of  both  Clerk  and  Treasurer  be- 
come more  arduous  as  the  town  grows. 

The  officers  having  judicial  functions  are  elected  as  in  the  early 
days  of  the  town.  Grand  and  petty  jurors  are  chosen  and  after 
1742  the  system  of  drawing  jurors  for  the  inferior  court  is 
adopted.  In  case  of  suits  against  the  town,  a  town  attorney  is 
sometimes  appointed,  i  Increase  of  legal  business  leads  to  the 
making  of  a  law  for  the  appointment  of  a  notary  public.  ^  The 
assistants  and  justices  of  peace  in  each  town  formed  a  kind  of 
criminal  court  for  small  cases.  ^ 

Taxes  were  ordered  by  colony  and  town  and  "  rate  makers  " 
appointed  to  assess  these  taxes.  For  a  time  the  assessments 
were  paid  to  the  town  treasurer,  the  town  sergeant  or  town 
constable  sometimes  assisted  in  collecting  them,^  but  at  length 
a  tax  collector  was  appointed  for  this  purpose.  This  collector 
was  general!}^  allowed  a  certain  per  cent,  for  the  gathering  of  the 
taxes.  The  assessors  or  rate  makers  were  also  paid  for  their 
services,  but  a  record  of  1751,  after  enumerating  the  assessors 
appointed,  states  that  "the  above  named  assessors  have  gen- 
erously offered  to  assess  the  Eates  of  this  Town  for  the  year  en- 
suing without  fees."^  Occasionally  a  poll  tax  was  ordered.^ 
Toll  taken  by  the  mills  was  also  a  matter  of  town  regulation.  ^ 
On   account   of    "  continual    increase   in   expenses  "a    "  Town 


1  Town  Meeting  Kec.  June  2,  1735,  Dec,  5,  1750. 

^  R.  I.  Acts  and  Resolves,  1751-2,  p.  40. 

i  Public  Laws  1730,  p.  113. 

^  Town  Meeting  Rec,  June  4,  1739.        ^  Ibid.,  June  5,  1758. 

^  Ibid.,  Nov.  29,  1757.  ^Ibid.,  Sept.  20,  1764. 


56         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

Audit "  was  appointed  in  1758.1  This  was  a  committee  chosen  to 
inspect  and  approve  accounts  and  exercised  considerable  power 
in  the  fiscal  management  of  the  town. 

The  Town  Council  had  certain  powers  over  the  highways,  but 
so  far  as  these  were  not  delegated  to  special  officers  by  the  Coun- 
cil the  management  of  highway  affairs  was  entrusted  to  the  town 
officers.  Surveyors  of  highways  are  appointed  from  time  to  time. 
Sometimes  they  are  two  in  number,  in  1718  increased  to  six,  and 
later  a  larger  number  are  chosen  to  exercise  their  authority  in 
specified  sections  of  the  town.  During  the  last  half  of  the  18th 
century  more  attention  is  given  to  the  highwaj^s,  overseers  of 
the  bridges,  are  appointed,  committees  are  chosen  to  prevent  en- 
croachments on  public  property,  ^  pavements  are  cared  for,  ^  and 
side-walks  are  ordered.  ^  A  gradual  increase  of  public  spirit 
manifests  itself  in  the  whole  highway  administration. 

While  the  Town  Council  guards  carefully  against  receiving 
any  into  the  town  who  may  become  chargeable  to  it,  yet  the  town 
cares  for  such  as  are  in  destitute  circumstances.  ^  This  care  is 
exercised  by  the  overseer  of  the  poor,  an  officer  elected  almost 
from  the  beginning  of  the  18th  century.*'  A  work  house  was 
also  early  established,  with  an  overseer  to  have  it  in  charge.  In 
the  latter  part  of  the  century  a  town  hospital  was  found  neces- 
sar3^  Matters  in  regard  to  health,  quarantine  arrangements  and 
pest  houses  are  under  the  general  supervision  of  the  Town  Coun- 
cil, whose  orders  are  executed  through  town  officers  appointed 
for  the  purpose. 

The  protection  of  the  town  from  fire  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  an  object  of  particular  care  before  1754.  Then  arrange- 
ments were  made  for  the  purchase  of  an  engine.  "^  The  destruc- 
tion of  the  Court  House  by  fire  in  1758  caused  the  town  to  take 
more  decisive  measures.  In  June,  1759,  a  fire  department  was 
organized  with  three  Fire  Wards  "  to  have  the  general  charge  of 
the  department,  and  eight  "  Fire  Constables  "  who  were  more  es- 
pecially the  executive  officers.  After  1768  the  *'  Fire  Wards  " 
were  called  "  Presidents  of  the  Fire  Wards  "  and  the  "  Fire  Con- 
stables "  were  known  as  the   "  Fire  Wards."    The  numbers  also 


J-  Town  Meeting  Bee,  Atig.  29,  1758.        ^  Ibid.,  June  6,  1782. 

a  Ibid.,    Sept.  6,  1784..        ^  Ibid.,  Sept.  24,  1784 

^  Ibid.,  Apr.  28,  1729.        ^  Ibid.,  June  7,  1714.        ^  Ibid.,  1754. 


Town  and  Gity  Government  in  Providence,         57 

sometimes  vary.  Men  were  also  cliosen  to  have  charge  of  the 
"  town  engines "  and  other  apparatus.  Others  were  to  have 
charge  of  the  removal  of  goods  and  still  others  were  appointed  to 
"  pull  down  buildings "  in  order  to  check  the  spread  of  fire. 
These  services  were  almost  wholly  voluntary.  The  organiza- 
tion in  the  same  general  form  continued  till  1854. 

The  clerk  of  the  market  came  to  be  a  regularly  appointed 
officer  after  1775.1  Several  attempts  had  been  made  to  establish 
a  "  town  market "  before  that  date,  but  unsuccessfully.  ^  The 
town  had  the  general  oversight  of  this  market  and  later  estab- 
lished a  fish  market  also.  ^  Over  both  of  these  markets  and  the 
wharves  of  the  town  the  authority  of  the  clerk  of  the  market 
extended. 

With  the  growth  of  the  town  the  police  regulations  became 
more  and  more  explicit.  The  Town  Council  makes  more  defi- 
nite rules.  4  The  offices  of  constable  and  sergeant  were  im- 
portant. A  law  j)rovides  that  holders  of,  these  offices  shall  be 
"  men  of  competent  estate  "  and  an  act  declares  that  "  no  free- 
holder within  this  colony  shall  be  arrested  by  any  person  that  is 
not  a  freeholder  in  said  colony,"^  and  even  then  certain  condi- 
tions must  be  observed.  The  constables  were  as  in  the  preced- 
ing century  to  have  charge  of  the  "  watching  of  the  town  "  and 
were  advised  by  the  Town  Council.  There  was  not  so  much  a 
change  as  an  enlargement  of  the  functions  of  constables  and 
sergeants. 

There  were  various  other  officers  performing  duties  necessi- 
tated by  the  growth  and  change  in  the  nature  of  the  town  indus- 
tries and  occupations.  The  attempt  to  make  Rhode  Island  a  hemp 
and  flax  growing  colony^'  led  to  the  appointment  of  a  "Hemp  and 
Flax  Viewer."  At  first  his  duties  extended  only  to  the  viewing  of 
hemp,  but  in  1732  flax  was  added  to  the  list.  With  the  decline 
of  these  industries  the  office  disappears. 


1-  Town  Meeting  Eec,  June,  1775. 

^  Ibid.,  Apr.,  1758.  June,  1759,  Aug.,  1771. 

i  Ibid.,  June  2,  1794. 

i  Ibid.,  June  2,  1735. 

^  R.  I.  Col.  Eec.  Ill,  p,  447. 

^  Public  Laws,  1730,  p.  144. 


58         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

Vendue  Masters  were  ordered  to  be  chosen  by  a  law  of  1719.1 
This  officer  was  elected  at  the  annual  town  meeting  to  have 
general  charge  of  auction  sales  in  the  town.  Toward  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  century  auctioneers  also  began  to  be  chosen 
by  the  inhabitants. 

Officers  to  secure  just  weight  and  measure  and  to  prevent 
cheating  in  quality  were  appointed  sometimes  by  town,  some- 
times by  colony  order.  "  Corders  of  Wood "  are  chosen  after 
1734,2  two  "Surveyors  and  Measurers  of  Boards  and  Plank  Timber 
and  slitt  work  and  Shingles  and  Clapboards  "^  in  1732,  three 
"cullers  of  hoop  stuff "^  sealers  and  packers  of  pork,  gangers 
of  casks,  and  sealers  of  weights  and  measures  in  1737.  Sealers 
to  determine  the  quality  of  leather  were  chosen  after  1746. 
"Viewers  of  fish,  oil  and  whale-bone"  were  elected  in  1732.  In 
1738  two  men  are  chosen  "  scavengers."  Ten  fence  viewers  are 
among  the  officers  of  1725.  The  number  frequently  changes. 
Five  "hog  constables "  are  chosen  in  1716,  but  they  are  not  reg- 
ularly appointed  in  the  following  years.  In  1759  the  election  of 
"field  drivers  "  removes  the  necessity  for  further  election  of  "  hog 
constables."  The  duties  of  the  "field  drivers"  were  about  the 
same  as  those  of  the  "  cattle  reeves  "  of  parts  of  Massachusetts  or 
the  "  pound  drivers  "  of  eastern  Connecticut.  They  continued  to 
be  chosen  after  the  city  government  was  inaugurated  till  in  1855, 
that  year  their  election  was  postponed,  and  since  has  not  taken 
place.  ^  Pound  keepers  were  regularly  elected  and  are  still 
among  the  city  officers.  Other  minor  officers  were  from  time  to 
time  appointed,  sometimes  to  care  for  special  emergencies. 
Some  of  these  officers  were  not  chosen  because  the  town  felt  a 
need  of  them,  but  rather  to  secure  a  uniform  standard  for  trade 
throughout  the  colony,  and  as  such  they  were  to  perform  duties 
not  strictly  the  result  of  town  development.  After  officers  were 
once  established  the  general  administration  remained  the  same 
to  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  city  charter,  in  1832. 


i  Public  Laws,  1719,  p.  111. 

^  Town  Meeting  Kec,  June  3.        3.  Ibid.,  Junn  5.         ^  Ibid.,  June  7. 

5  City  Council  Kec,  1855. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence,         59 
The  Eevolutionary  Period,  1763-1790. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  period  Providence  had  grown  to  be  a 
town  of  about  4,000  inhabitants  and  the  seat  of  considerable 
commerce.  As  the  area  of  the  town  becomes  less  through 
division  of  the  original  territory  a  greater  unity  of  spirit 
arises  among  the  townsmen.  The  inhabitants  feel  a  pride  in  the 
town.  In  17G4  Ehode  Island  College,  now  Brown  University, 
through  the  efforts  of  certain  citizens,  is  moved  to  Providence. 
The  streets  are  widened.  Elegant  churches  are  erected.  The 
town  has  an  appearance  of  prosperity  and  public  spirit  is  not 
wanting 

The  events  centering  about  the  war  of  the  Revolution  fur- 
nished ample  ground  for  the  manifestation  of  this  town  spirit. 
In  resistance  to  the  first  acts  of  British  oppression  by  means  of 
forced  taxation.  Providence  took  a  decided  stand.  Providence 
had  supplied  her  quota  of  troops  in  the  colonial  wars,  had  felt 
the  hand  of  England's  foes  in  the  injury  to  her  commerce,  but 
when  a  tax  was  demanded  the  independent  spirit  of  the  founder 
of  the  town  re-asserted  itself.  The  inhabitants  looked  to  the  priv- 
ileges granted  them  by  their  charter,  and  in  their  instructions  to 
the  representatives  in  the  General  Assembly,  in  1765,  declared 
that  "  As  a  full  and  free  enjoyment  of  British  liberty  and  of  our 
particular  rights,  as  colonists,  long  since  precisely  known  and 
ascertained  by  uninterrupted  practice  and  usage  from  the  first 
settlement  of  this  country  down  to  this  time,  is  of  unspeakable 
value,  and  strenuously  to  be  contended  for,  by  dutiful  subjects  of 
the  best  frame  of  government  in  the  world,  any  attempts  to  de- 
prive them  thereof,  must  be  very  alarming  and  ought  to  be  op- 
posed, although  in  a  decent  manner,  yet  with  the  utmost  firm- 
ness." i  The  same  spirit  pervaded  the  entire  body  of  instructions. 
The  resolutions  of  Providence  occupied  a  column  and  a  half  in  the 
Boston  papers  of  August  19th,  1765.  Later,  the  people  of  Prov-' 
idence  agre^d  to  assist  Boston  by  money  and  troops  in  her  resist- 
ance. In  JJJ^they  extended  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  author  of  the 
"  Farmers  Letters,"  who  had  done  so  much  to  arouse  the  country 
to  a  sense  of  its  dangers.  In  1769  the  town  acted  vigorously  to 
secure  measures  for  the  repeal  of  the  taxes  on  "  paper,  glass,  &c." 

^  Town  Meeting  Kec,  Aug.  13,  1765. 


60         Toion  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

In  1773  the  town  declared  "  Insomuch  as  the  British  Parliament 
have  undertaken  to  raise  a  Eevenue  in  the  American  Colonies  by 
a  duty  upon  Tea;  We,  the  Freemen  of  the  Town  of  Providence, 
legally  assembled  in  meeting  cannot  be  silent  on  so  interesting 
and  alarming  occasion." i  They  fear  to  pay  any  tax  lest  it  may 
be  yielding  the  right  to  impose  a  duty.  They  claim  their  right 
to  property,  and  assert  that  a  tax  upon  tea  is  taking  their  prop- 
erty without  their  consent,  and  that  no  tea  should  be  unloaded  at 
Providence,  that  if  the  principle  of  self-imposed  taxation  be  given 
up  the  assemblies  would  be  rendered  useless  and  recommend  that 
committees  of  correspondence  be  appointed  by  the  colonies. 
The  town  requested  the  Town  Council  to  reject  those  applying  for 
privileges  of  inhabitation,  unless  they  be  in  sympathy  with  the 
American  cause.  ^  Inhabitants  of  the  town  in  1772  burned  the 
schooner  "  Gasi^ee,"  which  had  been  stationed  in  the  Naraagan- 
sett  Bay  to  enforce  the  British  laws.  Though  the  particix^ants  in 
this  affair  were  generally  known,  a  liberal  reward  did  not  lead  to 
their  disclosure  to  the  English  authorities.  The  opposition  was, 
for  a  long  time,  at  Providence,  not  toward  the  King  or  the  na- 
tion, but  toward  the  ministerial  authority.  In  May,  1776,  what 
is  known  as  the  "Rhode  Island  Declaration  of  Independence," 
proceeded  from  the  General  Assembly  and  received  the  hearty 
sanction  of  the  town  of  Providence.  The  town  did  not  need  to 
contend  for  a  more  liberal  form  of  self-government  and  would 
not  suffer  the  liberty  which  it  had  to  be  taken  away. 

During  the  Revolutionary  period,  the  town  authority  over 
military  affairs  is  extended.  The  general  questions  of  war 
are  considered  in  town  meeting.  The  particular  arrangements 
in  regard  to  the  enrolling  and  equippment  of  troops,  construc- 
tion of  fortifications  and  the  like  are  left  to  the  Town  Council. 
The  town  which  had  said  that  the  "  laying  and  apportion- 
ing of  taxes  was  a  most  tender  and  delicate  part  of  govern- 
ment"^ does  not  hesitate  to  impose  heavy  rates  upon  its  in- 
habitants. The  necessity  of  making  special  announcements 
to  the  inhabitants  leads  to  the  appointment  of  "  Town 
Cryer"     in     1772.     The     police    regulations    become    more 

J-  Town  Meeting  Eec,  Dec.  4,  1773.         ^  Ibid.,  Aug,,  1774. 
^  Ibid.,  Apr.  19,  1777. 


Town  and  Oity  Government  in  Providence.          61 

strict.  Two  si^ecial  constables  are  chosen  "  to  take  care  that 
the  first  day  of  the  week  be  kept  according  to  law,'^  a  commit- 
tee of  three  is  ap^Dointed  "to  draw  up  rules  to  regulate  a  watch 
in  the  compact  part  of  this  town  and  see  what  they  can  agree 
with  three  men  to  watch  for  a  night.  "^  Some  other  features  of 
the  local  government  were  slightly  modified,  but  in  general 
the  Eevolution  did  not  change  the  form  of  local  administration. 

Paper  Money. 

Providence  suffered  much  during  the  Fievolution  through  the 
injury  to  her  shipping  interests  and  at  the  same  time  another 
growing  evil  made  itself  felt  in  the  paper  money  system.  Arnold 
Green  speaking  of  an  earlier  period,  says:  "There  were  witches 
at  Salem,  there  were  pirates  at  Newport;  Gorton  was  at  War- 
wick; and  before  long  perhaps  the  most  ominous  danger  of  all, 
there  was  paper  money  everywhere."  ^  The  desire  for  paper 
money  had  been  a  mania  in  Ehode  Island.  In  1710  an  issue 
had  been  made  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  expedition  against 
the  French  Colonies.  Repeated  issues  had  been  followed  by 
depreciation.  The  necessities  of  the  Ptcvolutibnary  War  led  to 
the  issue  of  more  paper  money.  Vain  attempts  were  made  to 
regulate  prices,  in  this  falling  curency,  by  law.  Providence, 
the  centre  of  trade  for  the  northern  section  of  the  colony,  suf- 
fered most  from  the  fluctuation  in  prices  and  addressed  a  memo- 
rial to  the  General  Assembl}^  "  in  the  strongest  terms  "  protest- 
ing against  farther  issues,  but  laws  continued  to  be  made  in  order 
to  float  the  money  and  enforce  its  acceptance.  Out  of  these 
grew  the  celebrated  case  of  Trevett  vs.  Weeden.  On  account 
of  the  vigorous  opposition  of  Providence,  attempts  were  made 
to  lessen  her  power  in  the  General  Assembly  by  reducing  her 
representation. 

A  continuation  of  paper  money  making  and  the  consequent 
depreciation  in  its  value  worked  to  the  advantag/^  of  those  who 
had  debts  to  pay,  and  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  creditors.  The 
rural  districts  were  largely  in  debt  to  the  town  of  Providence  for 
supplies  furnished  by  its  merchants.     The  selfish  interests  of  the 


^  Town  Meeting  Kec,  June  4,  176-1.        ^  Ibid.,  Nov.,  1764 
^  The  Township— New  England's  Gift  to  the  Nation,  p.  37. 


^^  Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence* 

country  and  town  were  therefore  directly  opposed.  The  remoter 
sections  of  the  town  of  Providence  itself  objected  to  the  expendi- 
ture for  the  improvement  of  the  "compact  portion."  There 
spining  up  a  bitter  hostility  between  town  and  country,  leading 
almost  to  bloodshed. 

The  town  naturally  desired  a  stable  form  of  government  under 
which  its  commerce  might  be  secui-e,  and  therefore  was  in  favor 
of  joining  with  the  other  states  in  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. Without  the  support  of  the  national  government  the  com- 
merce could  not  be  protected.  Rhode  Island  was  but  "  a  little 
empire,"  without  sufficient  power  to  maintain  its  own  existence. 
The  country  considered  its  interests  to  lie  in  directly  opposite 
direction  from  those  of  the  town  and  became  anti-federalist, 
while  the  town  was  strongly  federalist. 

Peaceful  Development,  1790-1832. 

During  the  early  years  of  the  town  agriculture  had  been  the 
leading  occupation.  In  the  eighteenth  century  commerce  grew 
and  after  a  time  outstripped,  in  importance,  the  agricultural  in- 
terests. In  the  latter  part  of  the  same  century  manufactures 
began  to  develop,  and  as  foreign  commerce  declines  the  inhabit- 
ants more  and  more  turn  their  attention  to  manufacturing  pur- 
suits. The  town  came  to  be  managed  for  the  interests  of  the 
" compact  portion "  where  the  population  was  centered.  "The 
Providence  Association  of  Mechanics  and  Manufacturers ',  organ- 
ized in  1789,  did  much  to  promote  the  growth  of  the  town. 
Steamboats  began  to  be  employed  upon  the  Bay.  Wealth 
increased.  The  town  gained  more  than  10,000  inhabitants  in 
forty  years. 

As  population  and  wealth  increased,  greater  attention  was 
given  to  town  improvements.  The  highways  were  made  wider 
and  straightened,  and  side-walks  were  constructed.  Weybosset 
Bridge  was  in  1792  made  more  than  twice  its  former  size,  and  a 
"  sufficient  draw  "  was  inserted.  Provision  was  made  for  light- 
ing the  streets,  and  some  attention  was  paid  to  sewerage.  High- 
ways on  the  west  side  of  the  town  were  improved  by  town  order. 
Business  gradually  left  its  old  center,  the  "Towne  Streete." 
The  Town  Council  was  more  and  more  occupied  in  meeting  the 
needs  of  the  growing  town  in  the  line  of  public  improvements. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence,         63 

As  early  as  1663  a  grant  of  land  had  been  made  for  school 
purposes.  Action  was  occasionally  taken  upon  school  matters  by 
the  town,  but  without  much  effect.  In  1752  a  committee  was 
"  chosen  and  appointed  to  have  the  care  of  the  town  school  house 
and  of  appointing  a  school  master  to  teach  said  school."  The 
expenses  of  the  schools  were  defrayed  by  private  contributions 
and  tuition  until  about  1767,  when  there  began  to  be  a  move- 
ment toward  free  schools.  This  was  slow,  and  during  the  war 
almost  ceased.  After  1787  school  committees  were  regularly  ap- 
pointed, but  no  efficient  system  was  adopted  till  after  1800.  Dur- 
ing the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  educational 
interests  of  the  town  began  to  receive  a  measure  of  careful  atten- 
tion. 

The  town  schools  were  strictly  non-sectarian  and  did  not  as  in 
some  sections  of  New  England  move  in  accordance  with  the  re- 
ligious ideas  of  the  major  portion  of  the  town.  They  grew  up 
almost  as  independently  as  any  of  the  town  institutions  and 
were  established  only  when  necessity  demanded  better  pro- 
visions for  education.  For  a  time  separate  schools  were  main- 
tained for  the  colored  children.  In  1828  the  schools  were  much 
improved  by  re-grading.  During  these  years  the  general  man- 
agement of  the  school  system  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Town 
Council. 

Each  step  in  the  progress  of  the  town  brought  an  increase  of 
duties  to  the  local  administration.  Providence  had  in  1825 
come  to  be  a  city  of  nearl}- 16,000  inhabitants.  The  increase 
of  numbers  had  made  the  transaction  of  business  in  the  town 
meeting  difficult  and  unsatisfactory.  Many  remained  away 
from  these  meetings.  The  town  began  to  be  less  efficiently 
managed  than  in  its  earlier  days  and  a  change  in  the  system  of 
government  was  demanded. 

The  movement  to  secure  a  new  system  of  local  administration 
was  made  with  that  reluctance  which  characterized  the  steps 
toward  other  changes  in  the  governmental  system  of  Ehode 
Island.  The  question  was  agitated  and  at  a  meeting  of  the  town 
April  16,  1828,  it  was  at  length  resolved  "  that  it  is  expedient 
that  the  town  of  Providence  be  invested  with  the  usual  power 
and  authority  granted  to  City  Corporations."    A  committee  was 


64         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

appointed  to  draw  up  such  a  form  of  government  as  would 
meet  the  requirements  of  the  town.  Their  report  shows  the 
influence  of  the  neighboring  corporate  city  of  Boston.  Fifteen 
hundred  copies  of  the  report  of  this  committee  v^^ere  "  ordered 
printed  and  circulated."^  Another  committee  was  appointed  to 
estimate  the  expenses  of  a  form  of  city  government ^  and  other 
committees  were  frequently  chosen. 

In  1830  the  General  Assembly  granted  to  the  town  a  charter 
of  incorporation  with  the  provision  that  it  should  not  go  into 
oj)eration  unless  adopted  by  a  three-fifths  vote  of  the  freemen. 
The  ballot  was  to  be  by  ticket,  signed  with  the  name  of  the 
freeman  voting,  if  in  favor  of  the  charter  having  the  word  "  Ac- 
cept" and  if  rejecting  having  the  word,  "  Not."^  "When  the  vote 
was  taken  it  was  found  that  out  of  more  than  700  freemen  vot- 
ing only  a  slight  majority  was  in  favor  of  the  specified  change 
in  the  local  government  and  the  charter  was  rejected.  Staples 
speaking  of  this  failure  to  adopt  the  charter,  says :  "  Probably 
the  town  government,  having  withstood  this  attack,  would  have 
existed  some  years  longer  had  it  not  been  for  the  riot,  as  it  is 
called,  in  Se23tember,  1881."'^  In  order  to  put  down  this  riot  it 
was  necessary  to  call  upon  the  Governor  and  troops  for  assis- 
tance. Blood  was  shed.  It  was  believed  by  many  that  this  un- 
fortunate affair  mxight  have  been  prevented  had  it  not  been  for 
the  lack  of  efficiency  in  the  town  government.  Action  was  at 
once  taken  to  secure  the  adoption  of  a  charter  and  at  a  meeting 
on  November  22,  1831,  there  were  459  freemen  who  voted  for  it 
and  only  188  against.  In  accordance  with  the  act  of  the  Gene- 
ral Assembly  the  charter  was  to  go  into  effect  June  4,  1832. 

Thus  in  less  than  two  hundred  years  the  town  passed  through 
various  phases  of  self-government.  For  the  first  few  years  after 
1636  deriving  their  authority  purely  from  the  consent  of  the 
inhabitants,  not  even  knowing  as  has  been  said  whether  the 
English  government  would  recognize  them  at  all.  After  the 
grant  of  the  charter  of  1643-4  looking  to  that  as  the  source  of 


^  Town  Meeting  Eec.,  Aug.  21,  1828.        ^  Ibid  Oct.  1,  1828. 
3  Ibid  No.  10,  Nov.,  1832. 
^  Annals  of  Providence,  396. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence,         65 

their  authority  and  after  1647,  by  the  union  of  the  towns,  the 
town  was  subject  to  the  laws  made  by  the  colony.  With  some 
changes  and  interruptions  the  inhabitants  continued  to  acknowl- 
edge the  authority  of  the  town,  colony,  and  England  till  1776 
when  by  the  "  Act  of  Independence  "  allegiance  to  England 
was  set  aside  and  for  a  time  only  town  and  colony  officers  were 
recognized.  On  the  union  of  the  colonies  under  the  Articles  of 
Confederation  a  third  power  was  again  introduced.  When  the 
Articles  of  Confederation  ceased  to  be  binding  the  inhabitants 
of  the  colony  acknowledged  merely  the  local  and  colonial 
authority.  After  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  in  1790  the 
United  States  government  was  recognized.  As  the  town  organ- 
ization did  not  wholly  pass  away  on  the  adoption  of  the  City 
Charted  in  1832,  the  inhabitant  of  Providence  now  lives  under 
laws  passed  by  the  town,  city,  state,  and  national  governments 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

Providence  Under  the  Cb^rter. 

"When  Providence  adopted  a  charter,  in  1832,  there  were  some- 
what more  than  17,000  inhabitants  within  its  territory  of  about 
five  and  one-half  square  miles.  It  had  an  extensive  trade  and 
manufactures  were  rapidly  growing.  There  was  in  the  commun- 
ity a  prevailing  idea  that  a  form  of  government  stronger  than  that 
of  the  town  was  needed  and  a  manifest  desire  to  adopt  the 
form  presented.  Although  the  population  of  Providence  in  1832 
was  more  than  17,000,  yet  at  the  time  of  voting  for  the  charter 
less  than  700  freemen  cast  their  ballots.  This  was  only  about 
one-fifth  of  the  male  population  of  legal  age.  The  reason  for  this 
small  vote  is  found  in  the  restriction  of  the  suffrage  to  the  $134 
freeholder. 

In  the  resolutions  adopted  at  a  mass  meeting  at  Newport  in 
18411  it  was  estimated  that  those  having  a  right  to  vote  under  the 
property  qualification  were  less  than  one-third  of  the  male  popu- 
lation over  twenty-one  years  of  age.  Only  about  one-third  of 
this  number  usually  voted,  therefore  the  management  of  public 
affairs  was  in  the  hands  of  about  one-ninth  of  those  who  would 
have  been  qualified  to  vote  in  the  more  liberal  states.  This  was 
the  result  of  the  continuance  of  the  government  organized  under 
the  charter  of  Charles  II,  in  1603.  The  proportion  of  voters  in 
the  town  of  Providence  was  somewhat  less  than  in  the  state  as  a 
whole,  because  of  the  large  number  engaged  in  trade  and  manu- 
factures. The  population  increased  slowly  during  the  first  de- 
cade of  the  city's  existence.  Many  young  men  left  the  city  and 
state  on  account  of  the  restricted  franchise.  A  movement  to  se- 
cure an  enlargement  of  the  suffrage  naturally  met  with  support 
in  Providence.  The  governing  body  was  reluctant  to  part  with 
any  of  its  privileges.  The  "  Dorr  War  "  followed,  and  at  length 
a  more  liberal  constitution  was  adopted.    By  this  "  Constitution  of 

^  May  5,  1841,  Sec.  9. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence.         67 

1842  "  any  male  qualified  by  residence  and  age  might,  even  if 
not  a  property  holder,  upon  payment  of  a  registry  tax  of  one  dol- 
lar, vote  for  civil  officers  of  state  and  towns,  "Provided,  That  no 
person  shall  at  any  time  be  allowed  to  vote  in  the  election  of  the 
city  council  of  Providence,  or  upon  any  proposition  to  impose  a 
tax,  or  for  the  expenditure  of  money  in  any  town  or  city,  unless 
he  shall  within  the  j^ear  next  preceding  have  paid  a  tax  assessed 
upon  his  property  therein,  valued  at  least  at  one  hundred  and 
thirty-four  dollars"  ^  It  is  then  to  be  remembered  that  during 
the  first  ten  years  of  the  Providence  city  government  only  $134 
freeholders  and  their  eldest  sons  voted .  After  1842  the  mayor, 
city  treasurer,  harbor  master,  overseer  of  the  poor,  superintend- 
ent of  health,  justices  of  peace,  school  committee  and  ward  offi- 
cers are  elected  by  registry  and  property  voters,  while  the  alder- 
men and  councilmen  are  still  elected  by  those  having  the  free- 
hold qualification  or  taxed  upon  property  to  the  amount  of  $134. 

The  transition  from  the  town  to  a  city  government  is  an  in- 
teresting period  in  the  municipal  history  of  Providence.  In 
accordance  with  an  act  of  the  General  Assembly  the  town  was 
divived  into  six  wards.  A  freeman  was  appointed  by  the  Town 
Council  to  call  a  meeting  of  the  voters  of  his  ward.  Seven 
were  necessary  to  constitute  a  quorum  for  the  transaction  of 
business  in  these  little  town  meetings.  First  a  warden  was 
chosen  to  preside,  after  his  election  a  clerk  of  the  ward  was 
chosen  and  then  the  voters  proceeded  to  the  election  of  the  city 
officers.  These  were  four  Common  Councilmen  from  each  ward, 
a  Mayor  who  must  be  a  resident  of  the  city,  and  six  Aldermen, 
one  from  each  ward.  After  several  changes  in  the  manner  of 
election,  the  Aldermen  are  now  chosen  by  the  wards  which  they 
severally  represent  and  must  be  residents  of  said  wards.  All  of 
these  officers  must  have  the  property  qualification  as  voters  and 
only  those  thus  qualified  can  vote  for  Councilmen  and  Alder- 
men at  the  present  time.  After  the  ballots  were  cast  at  this 
first  election  of  city  officers,  they  were  counted,  sealed,  certified 
by  the  ward  clerk  and  sent  to  the  Town  Council.  On  June  4, 
1832,  the  Town  Council   assembled   at   the   State  House.     The 


^  R.I.  Constitution,  1842,  Art.  2,  §2. 


$S         Tow7i  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

president  of  this  body  administered  "  the  oath  of  office  or  al- 
firmation  prescribed  by  law  "  to  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen-eleqt 
and  in  this  act  the  powers  of  the  Town  Council  pass  to  that 
board.  The  Mayor  then  administers  the  same  agreement  to  the 
Common  Councilm en-elect^  and  the  city  government  of  Provi- 
dence is  inaugurated.  The  Mayor,  Aldermen  and  Common 
Council  in  convention  forming  the  City  Council  elected  a  city 
clerk.  "  His  Honor  the  Mayor  then  addressed  the  City  Council 
at  some  length  in  a  most  able  and  eloquent  manner,  after  which 
the  City  Council  separated  and  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  retired 
to  the  Senate  Chamber."^  The  Common  Council  remained  in 
the  Representative's  chamber  and  proceeded  to  elect  a  presi- 
dent and  clerk.  When  this  was  done  they  reported  their  action 
to  the  Aldermen  and  in  a  joint  session  of  the  two  boards,  the 
other  city  officers,  so  far  as  possible,  were  elected  and  the  city 
government  of  Providence  was  organized. 

The  City  Government. 

The  mayor  of  the  city  was  to  be  "  the  chief  executive  magis- 
trate thereof,"  with  power  of  "  a  justice  of  the  peace  within  the 
city,"  also  of  the  sheriff  and  other  officers  "  in  preserving  peace 
and  good  order,"  By  virtue  of  his  office  the  mayor  is  president 
of  the  board  of  aldermen  and  city  council  though  having  only 
a  casting  vote.  If  he  deems  it  necessary  he  may  call  a  meeting 
of  the  Board  of  Aldermen  or  Common  Council,  or  both  and  sub- 
mit to  them  such  measures  as  seem  expedient  at  any  time.  It 
is  the  duty  of  the  mayor  to  inspect  the  conduct  of  the  subordi- 
nate officers  of  the  city  government.  He  now  has  a' veto  power 
though  an  act  may  be  passed  over  his  veto  by  a  three-fifths  vote 
of  each  board.  He  may  repeal  certain  licenses  and  aiispend 
officers  for  good  reasons.  The  tendency  to  centralize  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  mayor  has  not  been  strongly  manifest,  as  in  many 
cities, 

The  mayor  and  aldermen  "  compose  one  board."  The  Bjiiyor 
is  the  presiding  officer.      Since   1863,   a  president  of  the  board 


J-  City  Council  Rec.  1,  June  4,  1832.        ^  Ibid. 


Town  and   City  Government  in  Providence.          69 

has  been  elected  who  presides  in  the  mayor's  absence  and  in 
case  of  his  absence,  death  or  disabihty  becomes  acting  mayor. 
The  board  inherits  the  powers  of  the  old  town  council  as  the 
statute  says:  "the  mayor  and  aldermen  shall  exercise  the  ex- 
ecutive powers  of  said  city  generally  and  the  administration  of 
police. "1  They  count  the  ballots  cast  by  the  voters  and  give 
certificates  of  election  under  the  hand  of  the  cit}^  clerk;  provide 
for  military  protection  and  armories;  have  the  charge  of 
bridges,  laying  out  of  streets,  health,  poor,  registration,  grant- 
ing of  licenses  and  appointing  of  auctioneers.  The  police  de- 
partment is  under  their  control  only  so  far  as  limited  by  the  re- 
fusal of  the  common  council,  to  make  appropriations,  likewise 
lighting  of  the  streets  (except  electric  lightiDg).  As  a  board  of 
health  they  consider  nuisances,  see  to  the  removal  of  garbage  and 
cleaning  of  the  streets,  and  quarantine  arrangements  besides 
many  minor  functions.  Although  efforts  have  many  times  been 
made  to  remove  power  from  the  board  of  aldermen  they  have 
not  been  successful. 

As  in  case  of  the  board  of  aldermen  the  common  council  "  may 
determine  the  rules  of  its  proceedings,  judge  of  the  election  of  its 
own  members,  and  in  case  of  failure  of  elections,  or  of  vacancy 
by  death,  absence  or  disability,  may  order  a  new  election."  These 
powers  together  with  the  election  of  its  of&cers  and  committees 
constitute  all  its  exclusive  jurisdiction  ;  all  other  powers  are 
exercised  by  the  concurrent  or  joint  action  of  the  two  boards. 
Measures  which  originate  in  the  common  council  requiring 
the  concurrent  action  of  the  board  of  aldermen  may,  if  passed, 
be  vetoed  by  the  mayor,  and  then  must  be  passed  by  a  vote 
of  three-fifths  of  the  members  in  each  board*  The  same  is 
true  of  like  measures  of  the  board  of  aldermen,  but  this 
board  has  exclusive  jurisdiction  in  many  and  important  matters. 
In  cases  where  the  boards  meet  in  convention,  as  each  ward  has  ■ 
four  councilmen  and  one  alderman,  a  united  action  of  more  than 
five-eighths  of  the  common  councilmen  may  secure  the  passage 
of  any  measure  requiring  only  a  majority  vote  of  the  convention. 


^  Chap.  598,  Sec.  viii.  ^^09  Xm,  "^  ^ 

fijHIVlESIT 


70         Town  and   City  Government  in  Providence, 

Matters  relating  to  finance,  highways,  fire  department,  police, 
schools,  sewers,  parks,  lamps,  and  water,  and  some  of  less  impor- 
tance requiring  concurrent  action,  come  before  the  common 
council.  In  some  of  these  departments  the  authority  of  the  coun- 
cil extends  only  to  the  approval  of  appropriation  bills;  in  others 
they  have  equal  authoritj'  with  the  board  of  aldermen.  The  joint 
standing  committee  of  the  city  council  are  made  up  of  one  alder- 
man and  four  common  councilmen.  In  all  cases  where  a  joint 
action  of  the  two  boards  of  the  city  council  is  required  the  com- 
mon council  has  the  preponderance  of  power  as  to  number  of 
votes. 

The  mayor,  aldermen  and  common  council  in  their  "  joint  ca- 
pacity "1  are  styled  the  city  council.  In  this  body,  together  with 
the  officers  elected  by  them,  the  general  fiscal,  prudential  and 
municipal  management  of  city  affairs  is  vested.  The  powers  of 
the  city  council  include  those  not  granted  to  other  departments  of 
the  city  or  belonging  to  the  state  government.  As  a  large  number 
of  the  officers  of  the  city  are  elected  by  this  body  it  indirectly 
exercises  an  extended  authority.  By  this  board  are  appointed  the 
city  clerk,  chief  of  police,  officers  of  the  municipal  and  police  courts, 
city  solicitor,  recorder  of  deeds,  auditor,  city  engineer,  commis- 
sioner of  public  works,  superintendents  of  buildings  and  lights, 
fire  department  officers,  sealers,  inspectors  and  other  important 
and  minor  officers.  Through  its  committees  the  city  council  also 
exercises  much  authority  over  the  general  conduct  of  city  affairs. 

There  are  two  city  courts,  (1)  the  municipal  court,  (2)  the  po- 
lice court.  In  these  courts  the  general  judicial  powers  of  the 
city  reside.  To  these  courts  passed  the  judicial  power  of  the 
town  council  at  the  adoption  of  the  city  government. 

The  municipal  court  exercises  the  probate  authority  of  the 
city.  From  this  court  letters  of  administration  proceed.  By  it 
guardians  are  appointed,  and  before  it  other  matters  of  like  na- 
ture come.  This  court  is  "  open  at  all  times  for  receiving  and 
hearing  complaints  against  truants  and  absentees  from  school."^ 
A  judge  and  clerk  of  this  court  are  annually  elected  by  the  city 


1  City  Ordinances,  1887,  2. 

^  City  Ordinances,  chap,  xxxiii. 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence,         71 

council.  This  court  has  both  original  and  appellate  jurisdiction 
in  cases  involving  offences  against  city  ordinances,  though  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  at  present,  outside  of  what  might  be  called  its 
probate  business,  it  is  more  occupied  with  cases  involving  its 
appellate  jurisdiction.  An  interesting  evidence  of  its  relation- 
ship to  the  town  council  is  shown  in  the  provision  that  where 
the  judge  of  the  municipal  court  is  "  related  within  the  ninth 
degree  to  a  j)arty  in  any  cause  "  the  board  of  aldermen  may 
elect  one  cf  their  number  to  act  as  judge  in  such  case.  ^ 

The  police  court,  according  to  the  city  charter,  "  shall  consist 
of  so  many  of  the  justices  of  the  peace  of  said  city,  not  exceed- 
ing three,  as  shall  be  annually  elected  by  concurrent  vote  of  the 
city  council."^  It  has  original  jurisdiction  in  offences  against  or- 
dinances of  the  city  council  and  board  of  aldermen  where  the  fine 
or  penalty  does  not  exceed  a  fixed  amount.  Any  one  of  the 
justices  chosen  may  hold  this  court.  They  may  also  commit  to 
the  county  jail,  house  of  correction,  or  reform  school.  Appeal 
from  this  court  lies  in  the  municipal  court. 

There  is  also  a  city  solicitor,  who  is  the  legal  adviser  of  the 
city  officials,  is  counsel  for  the  city  in  actions  against  it,  and  is  to 
attend  to  the  drafting  of  legal  instruments  required  by  the  city. 
He  is  the  successor  of  the  old  town  attorney  sometimes  appointed 
in  earher  days.     This  office  was  created  in  1853. 

In  1876  the  office  of  public  administrator  was  instituted.  This 
officer,  as  well  as  the  solicitor,  is  elected  by  the  city  council.  It 
is  the  duty  of  this  officer  to  administer  the  property  within  the 
city  limits,  which  may  be  left  by  any  person  who  dies  intestate, 
"not  having  known  husband,  widow,  or  next  of  kin."  These 
courts,  the  solicitor,  and  public  administrator  constitute  the  gen- 
eral judicial  authority  of  the  city. 

What  might  be  considered  the  record  department  of  the  city 
has  three  divisions.  At  the  head  of  the  first  is  the  city  clerk;  of 
the  second,  the  recorder  of  deeds;  and  of  the  third,  the  city  reg- 
istrar. The  city  clerk,  elected  by  the  city  council  in  convention, 
is  clerk  of  the  same,  and  also  of  the   board   of  aldermen  and  oi 


■1  Statues,  R.  I.  598,  §  xi. 

^  Ibid  §  xii.,  compare  Boston  Charter,  1882. 


i^         J'own  and  City  Government  m  Providence, 

the  town  meeting  "held  concerning  the  Dexter  Donation." 
These  offices  of  the  city  clerk  closely  resemble  those  of  the  town 
clerk  who,  elected  by  the  freemen,  was  clerk  of  the  town  meeting, 
and  the  town  council  as  well.  The  city  clerk  is  keeper  of  the 
records  of  the  city,  excejDt  such  as  by  law  are  entrusted  to  other 
departments.  He  performs  the  duties  incumbent  upon  town 
clerks,  except  the  recording  of  probate  actions,  deeds,  and  births, 
marriages  and  deaths.  The  city  clerk  keeps  a  list  of  qualified  vo- 
ters, certifies  certain  elections,  keeps  the  plats  of  the  streets,  has 
charge  of  the  issue  of  certain  licenses,  prepares  the  "  City  Manual," 
and  superintends  the  printing  ordered  by  the  city  council  and  is 
the  custodian  of  the  city  seal,  and  has  besides  many  minor  du- 
ties. 

The  record  of  land  evidences,  conveyances,  and  others  of  like 
nature  required  to  be  kept  by  law,  are  under  the  supervision  of 
the  recorder  of  deeds. 

The  city  registrar  is  the  keeper  of  the  records  of  marriages, 
births  and  death.  He  is  also  to  perform  such  duties  as  are  per- 
formed by  town  clerks  relative  to  the  militia. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  town  the  "  hue  and  cry  "  was  occa- 
sionally raised.  A  town  sergeant  had  been  chosen  as  early  as 
1651,  and  constables  were  elected  from  time  to  time.  In  1775  a 
watch  was  established.  The  town  resorted  to  various  means  to 
secure  peace  and  good  order.  The  force  employed  to  guard  the 
town  was  usually  small  for  the  territory,  and  efficiency  was  gen- 
erally wanting.  During  the  first  year  of  the  city's  existence,  two 
watches  of  twelve  men  each  patrolled  the  city.  In  1833,  the  ofiice 
of  city  marshal  was  created,  and  he  was  put  at  the  head  of  this 
force.  The  regulations  governing  the  watches  were  frequently 
changed.  In  1851,  ten  men  were  appointed  as  day  police.  Un- 
der the  able  administration  of  Mayor  Thomas  A.  Doyle  the  de- 
partment became  more  efficient.  In  1866  the  office  of  chief  of 
police  was  instituted  and  that  of  city  marshal  discontinued.  The 
chief  of  police  is  at  the  head  of  the  dej)artment  and  is  appointed 
by  the  city  council.  The  force  consists,  in  addition  to  the  chief, 
of  deputy  chief,  captains,  lieutenants,  sergeants  and  clerk  of  po- 
lice, appointed  "  by  the  mayor,  by  and  with  the  consent  of  the 


Town  and  City  Government  hi  Providetice.         73 

board  of  aldermen,"  and  of  police  constables,  who  are  appointed 
"  by  the  chief,  by  and  with  the  consent  of  the  mayor  and  board 
of  aldermen. "  "  The  mayor  may  assign  any  of  said  police  con- 
stables to  act  as  detectives,  superintendent  of  hacks  and  drays, 
or  patrolmen  at  his  discretion."  The  management  of  the  whole 
force,  so  far  as  not  inconsistent  with  the  laws  of  state  or  city,  is 
in  the  board  of  aldermen,  subject  only  to  the  approval  of  the  ap- 
propriation by  the  common  council. 

The  fire  department  of  Providence  was,  until  1854,  a  voluntary 
organization.  At  this  time,  in  accordance  with  an  order  of  the 
city  council,  it  was  superseded  by  a  paid  department,  consisting 
of  a  board  of  engineers,  one  chief  and  five  assistants,  and  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  firemen.  The  next  important  change  in  this  de- 
partment was  made  in  1885,  when  it  was  ordered  that  the  fire  de- 
partment consist  of  a  chief  engineer,  a  deputy  chief  engineer, 
and  not  exceeding  four  assistant  engineers,  to  be  appointed  by 
the  city  council  and  such  other  officers  as  should  be  appointed 
by  the  chief  engineer,  acting  under  the  advice  of  a  committeee 
of  five  members  of  the  city  council,  making  the  chief  the  respon- 
sible head  of  the  department.  By  him  rules  and  regulations 
were  to  be  made  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  committee. 
Since  1867  three  presidents  of  the  fire  department  have  been  an- 
nually elected,  under  the  provision  that  one  shall  be  the  chief  en- 
gineer, who  may  give  direction  for  the  the  pulhng  down  of  build- 
ings and  take  like  measures  for  checking  the  progress  of  a  fire. 
Officers  for  this  purpose  were  elected  for  many  years  before  1867. 
In  1881  the  office  of  fire  marshal  was  created.  It  is  the  duty  of 
this  officer  to  investigate  the  cause  and  extent  of  fires  within  the 
city  limits  and  submit  the  result  of  his  investigations  to  the  city 
council. 

The  mayor  and  aldermen  are  by  virtue  of  their  office  the  board 
of  health  of  the  city,  though  the  superintendent  of  health  is  elec- 
ted by  the  people.  The  mayor  and  aldermen  also  have  charge  of 
quarantine  arrangements  and  appoint  undertakers  and  coroners. 

The  board  of  aldermen  have  the  general  care  of  the  poor 
through   a  committee  and  to  them   the   overseer  of  the  poor, 


74         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence, 

elected  by  the  people,  makes  a  monthly  report,  and  a  yearly  re- 
port is  submitted  by  the  same  officer  to  the  city  council.  The 
care  of  the  Dexter  Asylum  is  wholly  under  control  of  this  board. 

The  financial  management  of  the  city  is  under  the  general  con- 
trol of  the  city  council  and  most  expenditures  require  the 
sanction  of  both  boards  with  the  mayor's  approval.  The  city 
treasurer  is  elected  by  the  plurality  vote  of  the  people.  The  auditor 
and  assessors  of  taxes  are  elected  by  the  city  council.  Until  1868 
taxes  were  gathered  by  a  collector  who  received  a  certain  per 
cent,  on  the  amount  obtained.  At  that  time  taxes  were  ordered 
to  be  paid  at  the  office  of  the  city  treasurer.  The  work  of  the 
deparments  which  have  to  do  with  the  financial  management  of 
the  city  is  not  much  different  from  that  in  other  cities. 

The  development  of  a  department,  which  should  have  charge 
of  the  public  improvements  in  the  city,  has  been  subject  to  more 
than  usual  change.  Surveyors  of  highways  were  appointed  from 
1832  to  1872  with  about  the  same  duties  as  before  the  adoption 
of  the  city  charter,  though  some  of  their  duties  pass  to  the  city 
engineer  in  1869.  In  1872  three  highway  commissioners  were 
appointed  to  have  the  general  supervision  of  the  highways  and  the 
old  office  of  surveyors  was  discontinued.  A  superintendent  of  pub- 
lic buildings  was  appointed  in  1868  and  has  for  his  duties  the 
general  oversight  of  public  buidings,  fences  and  other  structures. 
The  city  engineer  performs  the  usual  duties  belonging  to  that 
office.  Water  commissioners  were  chosen  from  1869  to  1880  when 
the  supervision  and  control  of  the  water  works,  sewerage,  en- 
gineer and  highway  departments  passed  to  a  board  of  public 
works  consisting  of  three  commissioners  appointed  for  tliree 
years.  This  same  tendency  to  centralization  in  general  manage- 
ment again  manifested  itself  by  the  transferring  of  the  powers 
possessed  by  the  board  of  public  works  to  a  single  commissioner 
of  public  works,  elected  Feb.  11,  1889,  with  a  three  years  term. 

Since  Providence  became  a  city  more  careful  attention  has 
been  given  to  the  developement  of  a  system  of  education.  In 
1832  a  school  committee  of  twenty  one  members  was  elected. 
Since  1838  a  superintendent  of  schools  has  been  regularly  ap- 
pointed.   At  the  present  time  committees  are  chosen  in  the 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence.         75 

several  wards  and  these  together  with  a  committee  of  the  city 
council  have  the  general  mangement  of  the  public  schools. 

A  harbor  master  is  elected  on  a  general  ticket,  port  wardens 
by  the  city  council.  Overseers  of  the  city  pumps,  pound  keepers, 
fence  viewers,  corders  of  wood  and  other  officers  of  the  town 
survive  in  the  city.  A  city  messenger  and  city  sergeant  are  also 
elected  by  the  city  council  together  with  such  other  officers  as  are 
from  time  to  time  found  necessary.  The  fire  marshal,  several 
special  constables,  weighers,  inspectors,  truant  officers,  appointed 
by  the  board  of  aldermen,  perform  duties  formerly  entrusted  to 
the  town  council. 

Although  the  city  charter  has  been  amended  and  revised 
so  that  it  now  has  the  form  of  a  much  patched  instru- 
ment the  general  system  of  government  has  remained  the  same. 
The  powers  of  the  old  town  council  on  the  adoption  of  the 
charter  passed  to  the  mayor  and  board  of  aldermen  except  such 
as  were  delegated  to  the  city  courts.  The  mayor  at  first  had  but 
little  more  power  than  the  president  of  the  town  council  bat  this 
has  increased  with  the  growth  of  the  city.  The  freemen  in  ward 
meetings  elect  common  councilmen  who  in  theory  represent  the 
people  in  the  city  council.  To  the  the  common  council  are 
referred  such  measures  as  formerly  needed  the  approval  of 
the  town.  The  city  council  is  the  theoretically  an  assembly  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  town  and  performs  such  duties  and  exercises 
such  powers  as  formerly  belonged  to  the  freemen  in  the 
town  meeting  assembled.  Modifications  in  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment have  indeed  taken  place  but  they  have  usually  been 
made  with  extreme  reluctance  and  not  until  the  necessity  of  the 
time  demanded  change  and  have  not  been  for  the  purpose  of 
testing  new  theories  of  municipal  administration. 

The  Town  Meeting. 

In  the  midst  of  this  city  government  the  old  town  organiza- 
tion still  exercises  some  of  its  function ;  for  a  single  purpose 
town  meetings  are  annually  held.  In  1824  Ebenezer  Dexter 
dying,  left  a  greater  part  of  his  property  to  the  town  to  be  ad- 
minstered  under  certain  restrictions  requiring  a  meeting  of  not 


76         Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence. 

less  than  forty  freemen  of  the  town.  Therefore  annually  on  the 
third  Saturday  in  December,  a  town  meeting  is  held  in  which 
those  qualified  to  vote  for  the  city  council  may  take  part.  This 
meeting  is  warned  according  to  the  regular  form,  the  time  of  as- 
sembling is  proclaimed  by  the  ringing  of  four  church  bells  and  at 
the  appointed  hour  or  as  soon  as  forty  freemen  are  present  the 
meeting  is  called  to  order.  Afterwards  a  moderator  is  chosen  who 
is  then  sworn  by  the  city  clerk  who  is  ex-officio  clerk  of  the  town 
meeting.  The  warrant  for  the  meeting  is  read  and  the  regular 
business  proceeds.  The  moderator  calls  for  the  reading  of  the 
minutes  of  the  last  meeting,  the  commissioners  on  the  Dexter 
Donation  appointed  at  the  last  meeting  make  their  report,  the 
city  treasurer  renders  his  account  of  the  property  of  the  Dexter 
Donation,  the  mayor  and  aldermen  and  the  superintendent  of 
the  asylum  appointed  by  them  make  their  report,  a  committee 
is  appointed  for  the  ensueing  year,  (these  committees  have 
always  been  of  men  especially  prominent  in  the  city  and  able 
managers),  a  vote  of  thanks  is  by  the  town  meeting  extended 
to  those  who  have  had  the  affairs  of  the  donation  in  charge 
during  the  preceding  year;  such  other  business  is  transacted  as 
is  necessary  and  the  meeting  adjourns. 

The  mayor  and  aldermen,  as  successors  of  the  old  town  coun- 
cil, have  the  general  oversight  of  the  Dexter  Asylum,  provided 
for  in  the  will  of  Mr.  Dexter. 

They  receive  a  report  of  its  condition  each  week  and  one  of 
their  number  also  visits  the  Asylum  weekly.  On  "  quarter  days" 
the  mayor  and  aldermen  hold  a  meeting  at  the  Asylum  for  con- 
sideration of  business  concerning  it  and  having  finished  this  in 
the  language  of  tke  records  "The  Mayor  and  Aldermen  ac- 
compained  by  the  ofiicials  present  make  a  minute  and  particular 
examination  of  the  Asylum  and  inquire  into  the  condition  of  the 
several  inmates."  Thus  in  the  midst  of  the  complicated  city 
admin stration  the  old  town  meeting  still  survives  affording  an 
opportunity  for  the  comparison  of  systems  old  and  new. 

Thus  has  been  traced  the  general  development  of  the  muni- 
cipal government  in  the  town  and  city  of  Providence.  In 
reviewing  this  movement  toward  a  more  highly  organized 
system  of  government  there  is  ever  evident  that  extreme  reluc- 


Town  and  City  Government  in  Providence,         77 

tance  to  change  in  the  management  which  characterized  its  early 
days.  The  process  of  change  which  took  place  in  the  eighteenth 
century  by  the  division  of  the  town  has  been  followed  by  re- 
annexation  and  the  city  has  grown  in  area  as  well  as  in  wealth. 
The  little  settlement  of  1636  has  become  a  large  citj^  The  town, 
at  first  subject  to  difficulties  from  without  and  within,  lack- 
ing a  form  of  government,  overcame  these  difficulties,  established 
a  system  of  government,  and  has  modified  it  by  the  adoption  of  a 
charter  and  its  subsequent  amendments.  The  government  of  Prov- 
idence has  always  been  strictly  local.  It  has  not  followed  "  the 
present  tendency— more  strongly  marked  in  other  parts  of  the 
country  than  in  New  England — to  disregard  localities  and  organ- 
ize municipal  governments  on  a  general  and  uniform  plan  "^ 
without  considering  where  it  will  lead,  whether  to  the  system  of 
communes  of  France  or  to  something  less  adapted  to  local  needs, 
yet  there  has  always  been  in  Providence  a  gradual  progress  toward 
a  more  highly  developed  form  of  municipal  administration,  and 
in  spite  of  the  direful  predictions  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
separation  of  the  civil  and  religious  authorities  has  been  proven 
not  only  possible  in  the  management  of  local  affairs  but  also  in 
the  broader  field  of  government  of  the  state  and  nation. 

^  City  Government  of  Boston,  Bugbee,  Johns  Hopkins  Studies,  V.  132. 


